[PaulHoule]

Usability.

On my iPad for instance, when I want to visit Hacker News I open Safari and type "n", it gets autofilled, and I hit enter and I got there. Want to use my RSS reader? I type "1", it autofills, easy.

I have no trouble looking at a Desktop icon and interpreting it but for whatever reason all mobile app icons look the same to me. Although I have only two pages of mobile apps on my iPad (thank goddess!) I have several that have an icon based on an "N" and several that have an icon based on "H" and my Remote Desktop Protocol viewer is the same shade of orange as HN. Hard.

Mobile apps are frequently spyware, they frequently spam me with unwanted notifications, hide important functionaly behind hamburger menus. Just ask yourself, when you go to some site like Reddit and they put up a popup telling you to download the app because it is "better" -- do you really believe it will be better?

[alexstyl]

I understand the differences between an an and websites and why one would prefer to use one vs the other.

My question is about who would want to convert an app to a website for example for their business.

There are plenty of businesses out there who would benefit having their website as an app on their customers phone for easier access and they do not need to build a native (expensive) app.

[PaulHoule]

As a customer I'll give this case. To control my smart speakers I need to use a mobile app. This is a problem because my wife and son do not use mobile devices, I have an iPad that I unlock with my fingerprint so they can't use it and it goes with me when I am out. I have a large number of cheap Android devices but I can't trust them to keep them charged... These are cheap Android devices, half the time you plug them into the wall and leave them there for 12 hours and they are still 0% charged.

If I could turn the mobile app into a desktop app or a web site then they could use the smart speakers with the computers and they'd think more of my "smart home" purchases.

I think some businesses think they want a mobile app but if they make their customers mad and sad they would be better off without it.