Re: “Closing the gap with native” headlight project

Hi Dom

I'm Frederick Hirsch, Senior Architect at Nokia, Chair of the Device API working group (and also XML Security WG).

I'd suggest that the ease and convenience of discovery, purchase, trust based on a curated store, packaging, and offline use are all drivers for native apps. These are primarily business and usability concerns, though with underlying technology requirements.

An analogy (or similar situation) is  ebooks with ePUB and HTML5 web apps.

(Just as ePUB leverages HTML5, so native apps can leverage web technology (e.g. phoneGap), which is why the underlying technology might not be the primary issue).

regards, Frederick

Frederick Hirsch
Nokia



On Feb 12, 2013, at 4:48 AM, ext Dominique Hazael-Massieux wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Thanks again for showing interest in the “Closing the gap with Native”
> headlight project (see background on headlight projects [1]).
> 
> The premise of this project is that in the world of mobile devices,
> native applications (based e.g. on iOS or Android SDKs) are gaining
> greater mindshare among users and developers compared to Web apps; we
> want to look at what needs to happen to ensure the Web remains a strong
> platform on these devices.
> 
> One of the specific goals of this project will be to deliver at the
> latest by July a list of prioritized tasks that W3C should fund, for
> approval by the W3C management. 
> 
> One of my personal goals will be to look at where W3C has a specific
> role to play and a greater chance to succeed in influencing the world,
> but of course that shouldn't prevent us as a group to look at what other
> (non-w3c) initiatives would be needed to achieve our more general goal.
> 
> Before we're able to make such a list of prioritized tasks, I think we
> need to have a clear picture of where we think we're getting behind
> native apps, what we're already doing to catch up, which space the Web
> has a natural advantage to native apps. We'll also need to consider what
> trade-offs are required to catch up, and whether these trade-offs are
> worth it.
> 
> I think we also need to agree on some common terminology to avoid
> hitting classical ambiguities with terms such as "Web apps" or "hybrid
> apps".
> 
> I've started doing some work in that direction in the W3C wiki:
> http://www.w3.org/wiki/Closing_the_gap_with_native on which I welcome
> feedback.
> 
> But as a first step, I would certainly appreciate if the various people
> on this list could introduce themselves, explain their interests on the
> project, and maybe give a rough idea of what they think the problem is,
> and where they think most of needs are.
> 
> Dom
> 
> 1. http://www.w3.org/wiki/Headlights2013
> 
> 
> 

Received on Thursday, 14 February 2013 22:06:49 UTC