Not taking simple webclipping apps into account which guarentee rejection in the app store, Online apps are probably better if you just pulling data from a server and doing normal crud type stuff. They also are have more security options.

If you need any phone features you have to go native. The native controllers are a bit more robust two, also if your app can connect to multiple sites or opens multiple sessions and maybe pushes data from one session to another. http://www.mooncatventures.com/blogs then native makes sense.

It would be cool if apple just created a simple xcode template that you could easily wrap web apps around, something more advanced than just using a uiwebview or uiwebviewDelegate (phonegap, qcconnect). but unless you add a lot of phone side functionality your almost guarantted rejection.

thanks for the link, and taking the time to add to the debate.

I’m not sure you quite characterised my argument about native apps right. I explicitly did say that in order to tap into certain aspects of the hardware, then native apps are a must – but my point was it doesn’t have to be that way – Apple could give a Javascript API for the accelerometer, the GPS, the camera and so on. Afterall, there’s a JavaScript API for the Wiimote.

The other aspect a lot of folks focus on quite a bit is being offline. In a very short time this will be close to irrelevant – we’ll be always on everywhere easily within the lifetime of the iPhone platform, but how about right now? Again, Apple could easily provide client side storage for webapps (webkit nighties, and other browsers already have support for this), and client side caching of webapps for offline application use. This would have the benefit of addressing some of the performance issues folks are also focussing on.

For example – when the Android-phones are going for sale a web app can easily be adjusted for those platforms while a native app will need to be ported from the iPhones Objective-C-based(?) code into the Androids Java-based.

So the question that should be asked is: Do you need to go native – do you have any benefits from it? If not – don’t do it…

Offline ability is also key, which is why gaming is HUGE offline and thus much better for installed version. I mean the caching behavior of the web browser is so annoying that gaming is almost impossible w/o driving yourself mad.

The types of apps that seem to do better on web app side are where they are very data intensive and they ignore or have no use for camera or location awareness and don’t do offline modes.

To me installed apps follow the same rules as plug-ins and add-ons in the desktop world. If I gotta access something the sandbox of the browser doesn’t allow then it is much better to have an installed component: camera, LBS, contacts, email, calendar, video settings, change the SIP/Keyboard, etc. And most of all have an offline experience that is reliable and permanent.

– dave

Not to act like I have all of the answers, but I do think this is a good approch for a lot of people. The UIKit elements lend themselves to creating very simple interfaces, while on the web, the sky is the limit.