The Right Tool for the Job: Native or Mobile Web?

Mobile devices are changing how we communicate today just as fundamentally as the web has for the past decade, and businesses of all types are rushing to embrace their potential. Thanks to the success of the iOS and Android app stores, "mobile" has become nearly synonymous with "native" in most peoples' minds, while the mobile web is usually dismissed as a poor cousin of the app. As mobile browsers improve, however, the user experience gap between native apps and mobile web apps will continue narrowing, and it will become increasingly important for mobile strategists to have a nuanced understanding of both. This panel will explore the pros and cons of modern mobile web and native apps from the perspective of technologists with extensive experience designing and developing both, and will provide examples of products that use either medium (or both) particularly effectively.