[prof_hobart]

For me, mobile web and native app are largely solving two different use cases.

If it's one of the handful of places that I use regularly, and want frequent quick access to, it's probably going to be an app. I use apps for my main news sites, for my bus timetable, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon etc.

If it's an occasional visit it's going to be the web. I'm not going to be downloading dedicated apps just to browse a forum that I've been to a couple of times ever, if I'm just trying to check prices across a whole bunch of shops or if I'm trying to get the opening time of a restaurant.

There are a few that fall into the middle ground of visiting every now and then. But for the vast majority of the time there's a pretty clear web/app split, at least for me.

[berns]

That's why progressive web apps are so interesting. It's only after you visit a site a couple of times that the banner to add to home screen appears. And you don't have to download a whole app, just the app shell. If you visit a site sporadically, you are not bothered by the constant updates that you suffer with native apps.

[wvenable]

Is updates a bother? If I didn't get notified (and you can turn that off) I'd never know if my apps were updated.

A lot of commentary tries too hard to invent problems with native apps to level the field with web app applications.

[JohnDotAwesome]

> A lot of commentary tries too hard to invent problems with native apps to level the field with web app applications.

I don't necessarily disagree with that, but...

> Is updates a bother?

Yeah, kind of. Maybe just because I'm slow to update (my OS and my apps), but every couple of months, my apps break because I need to update (app devs apparently don't care about breaking older versions of their apps with API updates). On my iPhone5, I'll open an app (say, Facebook or Lyft), it starts up and then immediately crashes. This is how I know an update is available. I download the update, and yay, I can use the app again.

[k__]

To me it seems the other way around.

For years now, we have a nice open platform for everyone (-> the Web) and people can do >99% of the stuff they need and it gets more every day. Then there are <1% of special cases that need native app functionallity.

[simbalion]

The #1 reason that mobile apps are better than web apps for specific tasks like you describe is that mobile browsers are mostly junk and the phones are not powerful enough to run them. Cellular connections also provide an unreliable and inconsistent experience on the mobile browser.

As the technology improves this will change. The exact same relationship existed on desktop computers at one time.