[HenryTheHorse]

There are many reasons to build native apps in the enterprise IT (business software) world. For certain use cases, access to offline data and fast performance become critical requirements.

Think of a traveling sales rep who is on the road and needs access to a product catalog and pricing information to take sales orders. HTML5 doesn't quite cut it in such a scenario.

[buckbova]

Why couldn't this sales rep use a mobile connected ipad to access a web app with pricing and ordering?

[HenryTheHorse]

In several industries, sales reps often travel to locations without internet access (such as factory shop-floors, construction sites, mining sites etc). In such cases, the rep simply has to fire up the product catalog, capture orders, take notes etc and then sync up when he returns to an office/hotel room.

This is in fact one of the most common reasons for companies to look for native apps.

[seanwilson]

You can use PhoneGap or similar libraries however to write the app in HTML5 so you can have a mobile app and an online version for minimal effort.

[eonw]

you can use local storage or a number of other workarounds to solve this problem.

[egfx]

clearly you haven't seen Breeze http://www.getbreezenow.com/

[HenryTheHorse]

I've not worked with Breeze but have seen a couple of other HTML5-based frameworks that promise "native-like" capabilities. For the data-heavy enterprise world, none of them have worked.

[egfx]

I have used Breeze and it works beautifully. It is a bit complex but the results give you a very native like experience.

Ward Bell talks about it briefly here: http://www.viddler.com/v/94a02c0f

There are a few google talks about it on youtube too if you look. It's great for enterprise.

[pc86]

The fact that you even have to use phrases like "a very native like experience" should be enough to show you that JS+HTML5 is not yet enough.