I have this love/hate relationship with native mobile apps. They definitely have their place, but are often overused; I’m a huge proponent of the mobile web. I think as developers, we should build apps not for a platform, but for a purpose. More often than not, this involves more than one platform. Games are exempt in my opinion. Native code is a perfect fit for games.
37signals just released a mobile version of Basecamp. It’s a great app, and done purely in web technologies. This is a giant leap forward for a few reasons. One: some devs that are on the fence about mobile might look at this app and realize that it’s okay to go web versus native. Two: the crew at 37signals are creating quite a stir about their Cinco framework, which appears to be a rapid application framework for web apps, and will be open sourced.
I’m anxiously waiting for the release of Cinco. I have been looking for a mobile web solution and was entertaining the idea of creating my own micro framework. Maybe something based on Sinatra, but I would rather contribute to something that has the talent that 37signals brings behind it.