Hi Mike,

The increase in computing power on devices is on the side of mobile browser (e.g., PhoneGap) apps. Native apps do have better integration with device hardware, for the most part. And they do offer the capacity for local data storage. Wrapped WebKit apps could overcome these hurdles.

Lianja actually takes it a step further, a step that RhoMobile (Ruby) and Corona (Lua) have both taken: they get the JIT running natively on the device, which allows much more to be done in disconnected state. Given the state of mobile connectivity (emulators have to build in the ability to simulate network delays, e.g.), this can be an important consideration in development.

Hank

>>>>I think Lianja will more likely be inconsequential and out of touch, I'm afraid.
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>>Just like Amazon, eBay, Priceline etc who made their fortunes in the browser era but now promote native apps for prevalent devices?
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>>The device being left behind in this trend is WP which is why MS familiars like to push browser front ends so it's not as obvious (and because it allows claims that NET works on iOS and Android). But everybody else started to focus on native apps years ago. Even as simple an app as Angry Birds never could have succeeded as a browser app for phones, though people have since written browser versions as trick shots and lost money on them. If in doubt, consider why so many young cool dudes and dudettes prefer Apple notebooks to Windows if the browser is where it's at. Is Safari so much better than IE? No, that's not the reason. The reason is because the user experience and software written to make the most of it, is preferable. Which is exactly why these big firms quietly are delivering native apps to shine on devices that matter, rather than web pages.
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>>Even if it were true that permanently connected browser apps are the future, products like Lianja wrap HTML5 in a native wrapper so if it helps, think of Lianja as a browser with lots more options than JS, CSS and HTML5 and that doesn't need to be tweaked for every device.
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>Hey John
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>It would seem to depend on the kind of app. Angry birds or Bejeweled could be native, but can't they also be browser based? Would there really be any difference? One example I have is GasBuddy.com. They have a native iphone app too. It's to find cheap gas prices. If it is not connected, it's value is significantly less - to me. So why should they have a native version? I installed the native and I don't see any advantage of it compared to their mobile site. They take the same amount of time to load. They seem to have exactly the same UI. It's just wasting my local storage no?