[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.