Gap Analysis between Web and Native on Mobile

Status

This is a draft, work-in-progress analysis derived from the “Closing the Gap with Native” Headlight task force.

Introduction

To compare the various existing mobile apps development approaches, two main perspectives can be taken:

• from the end-user perspective: how well the said development approach will make it possible to provide the best possible user experience;
• from the content and service provider perspective: how well the said development approach will optimize their costs and benefits.

This report provides an analysis on how Web development and native development different from these two perspectives, with each perspective divided in three documents.

It first looks at the tasks that define the user experience of using an application. It then rates how well Web apps fare at making these tasks a good user experience. And finally, it defines possible actions to make Web apps fare better.

Similarly, another document looks at the various costs and sought benefits for an app provider. The analysis then rates how Web apps fare in reducing the costs and augmenting the benefits. And finally, it defines possible actions to make Web apps fare better in that regard.