[hackcoughgasp]

I'm the author of the article and I'd like to thank Nolan one more time. He really helped me to understand a lot about this. The storage issue is this: If you install a native app, the code is there on your device, the entire program, even if you haven't used it in a month. The code in the web version of that app would likely consume nothing soon. The amount of data consumed by each should be equal I think. No question Google has many teams working at cross purposes. It's a "throw everything up against the wall and see what sticks" approach. (What else could justify Chromebooks?) Apple has done this too in the past, but the distant past: Think Mac vs. Apple ][. But by now I think the value of their app store and ancillary revenue streams is so significant that institutionally I would expect them to be reluctant to do anything that would threaten it. I assumed in the story that Google had all the same perverse incentives as Apple in this regard, but I suppose app and in-app revenues for Google are probably a small fraction of Apple's. They're not even really trying hard to maximize that revenue. They allow 3rd party stores. But if even mobile devices moved back to the web, the ad revenue on them would move back to the platform that they dominate. So perhaps that explains their motivations.