Apps, A Continuing Debate: HTML5 vs. Native
August 21, 2012—Since the last time I wrote on this topic, more tools have been released to the market, each giving a different approach to building rich HTML5-based mobile applications. On the “light” side, there are programming libraries like JQuery Mobile which facilitate building web-based apps which look like native apps but which run within the browser. On the “heavy” side, there are mobile enterprise application platforms, such as SAP’s Unwired Platform, which allow developers to build native apps for multiple operating systems, but with a single code base. In between, there is a lot of competition, including Sencha Touch and Adobe PhoneGap, probably the two most popular tools on the market. To make things even more complicated, many of these technologies can be combined. No wonder companies are struggling to take a decision!