[lewisl9029]

This is exactly what the Hosted Web App and Web App Manifest Specs are meant to address:

http://www.w3.org/TR/appmanifest/

Unfortunately, the two largest mobile platforms (iOS and Android) don't have native support for these specs yet. And I'm not sure if they ever will properly support them since they'd probably prefer to keep the free developer lock-in they get with their native app platforms.

In the mean time though, you can use projects like Manifold JS to create Cordova-based polyfills for those platforms:

http://manifoldjs.com/

[sehr]

I don't use android, but I remember hearing about it trying to blur the lines between apps & browser tabs. They might be more amenable to the idea of browser apps considering web advertising is their cash cow too IIRC