to make an iPhone app you have to learn a new programming framework and also have some expensive hardware for testing. To make a web app adapted to working with iPhone-sized screen, you don’t need any of that. Then, once the app is running, the publisher could publish a trivial iPhone app in the AppStore that would serve purely as advertisement, sort of like “click this button to be redirected to the website where all your iPhone dreams come alive and clicking, after you pay a subscription fee similar to AppStore app cost”.
So what is wrong with this picture? Do real iPhone apps depend heavily on the input from the gadget, like the GPS info? Or is internet connectivity expensive on iPhone so that it is more convenient to have apps that run on the device in off-line mode?
Performance? An app that depends on web communications is never going to be as snappy as a built-in app.
Apps work on the iPod Touch as well, while a web-based app would only work near a Wi-Fi point. So by building a web-based app, you’d be losing part of your potential market.
HTML5 is allowing web apps to become more and more sophisiticated, but I still think a native iPhone app would be faster and more flexible.
As for writing a “loader” type app to submit to the iTunes App Store, Apple probably don’t like that.
Really the combo of iTouch/iPhone + App Store is very smooth and powerful, and the app writers get to keep most of the money from app sales. Apple really got it right by giving away the SDK for free too.
I have a bunch of apps on my iPhone that have absolutely no reason to hit the web. Which is good, as I use many of them inside the building here at work, where coverage is pathetic at best.
This isn’t correct. You can build HTML5 “web” apps that will work offline. You need to be online once to download and install it, but that’s true of App store apps, too.
I think the main reason is that it’s easier to get people to actually pay for things through the App store.
can such a “Html 5” / Javascript app store data persistently on an iPhone while in off-line mode? Sort of like in a file, database or whichever way the persistent storage works there?
A full HTML 5 capable browser will allow off-line data storage. IIRC safari/iPhone can also do that, but I’m not 100% sure.
Also IFAIK, the apple App Store will allow you to buy apps that are payed for with your monthly phone bill. This makes buying apps easier than most other methods of payment for websites, especially in countries such as the Netherlands, where payment via credit cards is less popular.
Ibis Reader is one such app. I had previously installed the app and downloaded The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. During the install it asked permission to use a certain amount of drive space. Just now I turned off the WiFi and ran Ibis Reader, it let me read the book.
Ibis isn’t as nice as the Stanza iTouch/iPhone app, but it works.