Open Source entrepreneur

An interesting post from Michael Mace about the death of native applications on the mobile market.

As an iPhone user and SAAS advocate I would agree with him, but I think the web application trend will continue only if mobile browsers change and allow a better integration with the mobile device itself.

Currently mobile web browsers work like desktop web browsers, that is, when you close the browser the web applications shutdowns and closes as well.

I want to see a Javascript API built-in webkit (Apple, Android and Nokia) that would allow access to core features of the phone like alerts, vibration, messaging, storage....
Then some javascript calls would tell the phone OS to allow the web application (web page) to run in the background even when the web browser application is closed.

If the web application can interact with the OS in a similar and standard way, then yes, web applications will put native applications to the bench.