Oh man, they should really tell Instagram / Angry Birds that their software will work as a webpage and that the user experience on a mobile browser will be that much better.
Uh, Angry Birds quite obviously works as a web page (http://chrome.angrybirds.com/?version=hd), haven't tried it on either mobile or computer browsers though. Just wanted to point out that even high-profile games such as that are indeed becoming available as web pages.
On laptops and desktops, sure, where there's enough of a computational surplus that the overhead isn't that big a deal. I'm not aware of a web-delivered version of Angry Birds that can work well on phones, though.
Angry birds in the browser is 100x worse than on the iPad. It feels like a totally different game. For a game like that, web apps can't really compete with native apps right now.
the distinction should be made of mobile web apps vs web apps.. cause there are tons of flash games that outshine Angry Birds in many ways. Just pointing out for clarification.
The question isn't "can it be done", but "can it be done well". Windows Mobile 5.0 could do 95% of what the iPhone could do (and a fair bit more). The iPhone did almost all of that 95% overlap better. Better can be the difference between a niche product and a product that changes an industry.
I don't think anyone will argue with you that the touch interface that the iphone came out with was revolutionary. the better comparison is Android vs iPhone. While you say this, the regular phone is still more abundant than the smart phone.