[JimDabell]

> But isn’t a big reason for native apps just to harvest more metrics and data about your customers?

I've been a native app developer for ten years, I've worked on dozens and dozens of apps, and I know a tonne of app developers and entrepreneurs.

I don't think I've come across a single case of somebody saying that they want an app for those reasons.

The closest I can think of is a loyalty card app, and they got the usage data through use of the loyalty system, not by spying on your phone, and it didn't matter whether you used the plastic card, the website, or the app.