My “comfort zone” doesn’t even stretch to web development, to be frank – I’m a tinkerer rather than a hard-core geek – but I do think there is a fairly well-defined divide between those who think about things in a “web way” and those who don’t. I’m not a developer – if anything I’m a user advocate, a generalist who tries to understand how people can make sense of what is undoubtedly a complex environment.

To be clear: I’m not casting any aspersions on either native or web development: if my experience of doing web stuff has taught me anything it is that the phrase “it depends on context” is probably the only “truth” to be had here…

The author has no idea what he’s talking about. Objective-C is a modern, dynamic programming language that has been continuously improved upon in the past years. The iPhone SDK is head and shoulders above the expensive (looking at you, RIM) and/or flaky and incompatible (ahem, J2ME) platforms of the time. The same goes for Android and WM7, they’re fine platforms.

“this isn’t web-friendly script territory, this is flat food and ponytail stuff”

Ignoring the blatant rhetoric, is web app development “script territory” then? Was Google Docs written by a designer with some spare time chalking up some jQuery code in default.js? Writing a web app is just as hard as writing a native iPhone/Android/etc app.

The author has no right to dismiss native development outright just because it lies outside his small comfort zone.

“the expense of the device itself, the ‘we’ll have a third of your revenue, thanks’ charging model put in place by Apple, and it is understandable that many are looking to other platforms to satiate their mobile development needs.”

What a load of rubbish. Would you develop a web app for smartphones without owning such a device? And would you rather grow a ponytail and build your own payment processing system? The App Store and equivalents provide developers with an unprecedented way to easily sell their apps.

The only people I hear complain about the App Store, Marketplace etc fees (it’s not just Apple) are the people who aren’t actually into app development and don’t know what they’re talking about.

To conclude, I’m not saying that web apps have no merit. Instead, with browser technology improving as quickly as it does, the future only looks all the more bright. But this article is not about web technology vs. native platforms – it’s about people afraid to think outside their comfort zone, afraid to learn anything that cannot be parsed by a web browser.

We’re probably not going to live-stream because of budget constraints but we might see if we can get some footage for people to watch after the event. We’re not 100% on this either, but keep an eye on http://thebigm.mobi or http://twitter.com/bigmconf where we’ll be shouting about this if it happens

Mike

Mike

Push me and I’d have to say the Mobile Web has the most to offer in the long term, but in a world that offers PhoneGap – and perhaps more importantly Layar – we may not have to choose. As browser functionality grows it becomes more of platform choice.

Cheers!