Saturday, 28 January
Mobile is an ideological minefield. The insults are barbed and the indignation disproportionate. Take a stance on mobile product choices and design approach, and you’ll soon receive the vitriol of your opponents.
The mobile app vs. native app debate is still one of the most contentious. I find this daft. No one has this problem about native desktop apps vs. web apps. The same people that decry native mobile apps use Coda, Photoshop, and OmniFocus. Native enthusiasts use FreeAgent, Google Docs, and Basecamp without a second thought. In the desktop world, we already know that whether a native or web app is better depends on what it’s for.
I long for a similar rapprochement in the mobile world. Sloganeering and feigned fanaticism are fun, but reality is always more nuanced. Is our mobile future native or web? No. It’s native and web. Now let’s stop arguing, and build the damn thing.
