iOS 7- Making html5 devs second-class citizens?

[cleo1]

I'd like to take the opportunity to address the topic of the web on iOS 7 (which, despite the success of Apple's walled garden, is still far and away the most heavily-developed 'platform'). Since the inception of the App Store, though, web apps have been given a second-class status. To add insult to injury, Safari no longer offers a retractable top bar (why is it necessary to show url in status bar, btw?) and unless your content is displayed in a vertically-scrolling format (as opposed to a more elegant horizontal-swipe format), the address bar and task bar remain in place. Beta 1 was full of enough browser bugs to make testing web apps virtually impossible—drop down menus would not work, neither would javascript swipe functionality. Think that's minor? Tell Onswipe or Sencha—their swipe (their whole gimmick) is still broken. How many millions of dollars lost and clients angered? Anyway, to be fair, nearly all these issues were resolved in beta 2, except for the web clip crashes, which are bad enough to compel one to stay away from web clips altogether until the issue is resolved. But web clips, and the standalone mode that comes with them is crucial to the mostly psychological distinction between a web site and a web app. To clients, seeing their icon on the home screen is priceless. If the idea is to get me to shift my efforts to an activity that earns Apple their 30%, then all this is understandable.

 

[AngerDanger]

I'd like to take the opportunity to address the topic of the web on iOS 7 (which, despite the success of Apple's walled garden, is still far and away the most heavily-developed 'platform'). Since the inception of the App Store, though, web apps have been given a second-class status. To add insult to injury, Safari no longer offers a retractable top bar (why is it necessary to show url in status bar, btw?) and unless your content is displayed in a vertically-scrolling format (as opposed to a more elegant horizontal-swipe format), the address bar and task bar remain in place. Beta 1 was full of enough browser bugs to make testing web apps virtually impossible—drop down menus would not work, neither would javascript swipe functionality. Think that's minor? Tell Onswipe or Sencha—their swipe (their whole gimmick) is still broken. How many millions of dollars lost and clients angered? Anyway, to be fair, nearly all these issues were resolved in beta 2, except for the web clip crashes, which are bad enough to compel one to stay away from web clips altogether until the issue is resolved. But web clips, and the standalone mode that comes with them is crucial to the mostly psychological distinction between a web site and a web app. To clients, seeing their icon on the home screen is priceless. If the idea is to get me to shift my efforts to an activity that earns Apple their 30%, then all this is understandable.

You've answered your own question.

 

[alent1234]

web apps are a nice idea, but all the ones i've used over the years are slow. anything that is cross platform and multi browser is always going to be slower than native code

 

[cleo1]

web apps are a nice idea, but all the ones i've used over the years are slow. anything that is cross platform and multi browser is always going to be slower than native code

Cross-platform usability is the key advantage (thanks for mentioning), but also, html5 is only improving and bandwidth is only increasing. Web apps as a format are becoming more practical and refined, not less. Remotely-hosted content will be the norm soon enough—hence everything will be a "web app". Local storage will become like cash—still used, but mostly discouraged.

 

[whocaresit]

HTML 5 Web'pages' are not 'Applications'. The word 'web apps' is being too generous. That being said, I love HTML 5!

 

[cleo1]

HTML 5 Web'pages' are not 'Applications'. The word 'web apps' is being too generous. That being said, I love HTML 5!

Google Docs is not a suite of applications? C'mon.