Making Web Apps first class citizen

One area where Web apps are clearly at disadvantage with native apps is
in how they're integrated in the whole user environment.

In particular:
* they don't show as part of the list of applications (at least on
Android; iOS let users save Web apps in a way that achieve that
integration)

* they're stuck inside tabs inside the browser app; this means they
don't show as part of the multi-tasks switcher (again, I think iOS is
somewhat better in that regard, but I'm not 100% sure either)

* they have very limited storage space, and getting access to larger
space remains awkward

* isolation from one Web app to another is not a given (e.g. cookies
from one service can be reused by another) [that is good in some cases,
but not desirable in others]

* they cannot run background services, or be woken through push
notifications

Now, that problem has purely technical aspects (some of which are
already being worked on), but also a lot of business aspects, in
particular the willingness of platform providers to give Web apps a
higher standing when they may feel that's in contradiction with their
interest in a native ecosystem.

I would be interested in hearing how important people feel this topic
is, ideas on how to best approach it; and ideally, someone volunteering
to lead further investigations on it :)

Dom

Received on Friday, 8 March 2013 12:33:33 UTC