I don't understand why not much has been said about Android on exactly this topic.
The article complains mainly about two issues both of which are solved by the Android platform:
1) The keeping-applications-up-to-date problem has been addressed by the auto-update mechanism introduced by a market update for some time now. The apps are updated silently in the background without any user-interaction whatsoever. That's exactly what Chrome does for the web. If you keep Chrome open for decades then you web app will not upgrade either, at least not in the way you think it will.
2) The every-app-is-an-island problem is symptomatic of iOS since you are only allowed access as Apple sees fit. However, this is a solved problem on the Android platform through the use of Intents and the Back button which works as good as any web linking would.
The article complains mainly about two issues both of which are solved by the Android platform:
1) The keeping-applications-up-to-date problem has been addressed by the auto-update mechanism introduced by a market update for some time now. The apps are updated silently in the background without any user-interaction whatsoever. That's exactly what Chrome does for the web. If you keep Chrome open for decades then you web app will not upgrade either, at least not in the way you think it will.
2) The every-app-is-an-island problem is symptomatic of iOS since you are only allowed access as Apple sees fit. However, this is a solved problem on the Android platform through the use of Intents and the Back button which works as good as any web linking would.