It is a lot easier for a corporation to mandate an API, slap it into an SDK, and kick it out the door with guns-blazing full hardware accelerated support.
It is another thing to create an open standard that seamlessly and securely interoperates with absolutely any browser on any device.
The great mistake of the author is that he assumes it is a spec contest. Native apps will always have a slight advantage, but "having to have one or two developers per platform" is the exact reason why the web will win out.
They aren't at war because they don't have the same goal. Native apps will never be able to be universally distributed across platform or device. Period.
True. Which is why the Netflix app is basically just an HTML app with a thin native wrapper.
When native means only iOS then it make sense to just write a native version instead of a mobile web app, but when it means having to write a version (or two) for iOS, one for Android, one for Blackberry and one for Windows Mobile 7 then it makes a lot more sense to write a mobile HTML version that works on all of them.
The great mistake of the author is that he assumes it is a spec contest. Native apps will always have a slight advantage, but "having to have one or two developers per platform" is the exact reason why the web will win out. They aren't at war because they don't have the same goal. Native apps will never be able to be universally distributed across platform or device. Period.