Reposted from the Xtreme Labs blog.

At Xtreme Labs, we've developed and built some very exciting apps and we have seen the evolution of the web-enabled mobile application since the birth of the App Store. Here's some of our thoughts on the state of native and web apps in mobile.

What Users Really Want: Web-Enabled Applications That Work

Native apps and web apps have much in common in their usefulness to a smartphone owner. The most interesting apps require access to the web, access to a user's location and their social graph. These apps have only become possible in the recent years, due to the convergence of smartphones as: the personal computer, the hub through which sharing occurs on social networks [1] and the beacon through which we can locate ourselves in the world. For a certain class of applications, it is now possible to provide a good experience and access to the core features that users need through web applications. It is exciting to see the myriad of boundary-pushing news sites and web apps from companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Google [2]. However, there are whole classes of apps that require a native strategy to work if they require access to frameworks for features that are unavailable otherwise. Google+ on iOS through Safari is a wonderful experience, but it still doesn't allow you to post photos. Still, the web app and the native app both deliver on a core experience that users are looking for, despite the feature gap that exists sometimes. [3]

The Native Experience

The experience that has turned apps into the selling point of smartphones comes from immersive design that transforms your device into a swiss army knife of wonders— this is the promise of apps. It's the ability to create those magical experiences where your phone can help you find your favourite restaurant, act as your multitrack recording studio, or serve as your pocket game device all at the same time. All of this is made possible through great development platforms and tools that gives developers access to innovative hardware features and software frameworks. That's what makes it possible to do anything from music software to game development. Developers often lament that these APIs are only on Native frameworks. [4]

HTML5 vs. Native Development: Platforms and Skill Sets Required, Distribution and Monetization Strategies

Platforms and Skill Sets

The breadth of languages and frameworks that mobile application developers need to create apps is staggering and the skills required are vastly different. This is especially true on native development, where in order to create an application on multiple platforms, a company could require developers with knowledge and experience on many different languages and development methods. As a result, maintaining codebases for multiple platforms is a challenge that small companies often do not want to tackle due to the need to maintain a lean engineering team. However, it is still nascent stage for mobile web development tools, despite the proliferation of great web frameworks. [5]

Distribution and Monetization

The App Store just announced the download of 15 billion apps. While the growth of Android is amazing at over 500,000 activations per day, its adoption of Android market is less impressive [6]. Regardless, this amount of growth and adoption from smartphone users has created an ecosystem where developers can monetize their applications very effectively. A platform's app store provides a distribution channel that reaches the entire userbase and developers are given a myriad of new ways to acquire users and monetize. A greater concern is when owners of the platform copies your feature set and integrates it as part of the core operating system. Instapaper, a reading app that has been very popular on iOS, has been successful enough for Marco Arment to build an amazing experience around it, but even he is rethinking his strategy long-term despite his optimism from Apple creating a very similar feature integrated into Safari [7]. Certain platforms, like iOS, can have lengthy submission processes for applications, which can stall deployment and time-to-market. [8]

Future Trends

Native apps are still where the strongest experiences are, but hybrid applications are helping to bridge the gap between strong device integration and rapid iteration. The App Store on iOS uses web views embedded inside a native application, but provides a native experience for downloading and updating applications on iOS [9]. It is common to see a multi-pronged approach where a service has a website, mobile web app, and an native app to provide deeper experiences at each layer [10]. Beyond looking at a single app, the next wave of amazing mobile apps could be connected and enabled to create an integrated experience that avoids the silo effect that exists right now. Fred Wilson opines for in his blog post on The Always Logged In Experience. [11]

Footnotes

Watch these videos and decide for yourself what leaves an impression on you.

Apple / iPad

"The future of computing..." "Now we can watch a newspaper... see a phone call", focuses on the apps. You also see the device being used in real settings.

Verizon / Android Tablets / Samsung

Advertising a feature list (4G, etc.) in one, and someone trying to play an online game while standing in the Tron Legacy set in the other. People using tablets while walking outdoors.

Sidenote: I realize Verizon doesn't manufacture tablets.

HP TouchPad

Russell Brand is funny and is actually using the device.

BlackBerry Playbook

Someone pulls a Playbook out of their pocket, and watches videos while walking. Sells multitasking even though all the tablets run multiple apps in some shape or form.

I can't remember the last time I walked around using my iPad or Xoom or Playbook, but I do love watching videos. But again, there is the Padfone:

The videos say more than I could, but would love to see what's else has been created.

-Boris

In November last year I had the privilege to speak to some really cool high school kids from all over Toronto on Youth Day at TEDxYouth@Toronto. I wanted to tell them that it was okay if they liked things that didn't seem sensical or practical--given my teenage years were spent divided between my love of punk rock and computers. Eventually, when I learned to embrace both, I was led down some of the interesting paths in my life, but I resisted that for the longest time. So clearly, this was something that I wish I was told when I was younger (or even better: build a time machine and go tell my teenage self this). I figure that I'd put this here now that it's up on YouTube.

And I also left this as a message at the event:

"You will be told that following your dreams is impractical and impossible and that finding your passion is unimportant. But now, more than ever, you need to find your passion and follow your dreams because it is the most important step to take in your life. Focus on this. It is crucial because we as a society are reliant on your unique passions to solve the great problems of our time through discipline, energy and creative thinking. Our most innovative work arises from the empathy and experience of things we truly care about."

P.S. lots and lots of love to everyone involved... and of course, the youth that made it there -- showing up is half the battle.

P.P.S. talk is now on ted.com

Was reading an article about Twitter and spam in the Guardian the other day and it made me think how much energy is wasted on fighting spam on the internet.

Spam degrades the signal quality on what connects all of us on the net, and is a battle that all the big companies have to fight. Zittrain talks about how the increase of spam, viruses and attacks were one of the indicators that could curb the generativity of the internet. It's interesting that spam can affect the price of the penny stocks that they tout. 

It's hard to visualize the spam volume in my email since I use Gmail, and my email is a generic one that may end up on a lot of random lists. But my spam folder hovers at around 600-1000 messages at all times. Try to visualize 100 trillion emails and think about this: 89% of the 100+ trillion emails sent in 2010 were spam.

Even on Facebook, even with platform spam down 95% in 2010, just now I still had a friend that posted a spam story on my wall through a 3rd-party app (the good thing is that it is easy to revoke these permissions).

Mmm... spam.

Since this blog was started in honour of The KLF and The Manual, I really have to say that it makes me secretly happy that a song went viral for being stupid and bad. And everyone that listens to it has to point out why it's bad (even though in terms of pop music, it's not that bad -- just ridiculous... see the rap cameo after the bridge).

From The Manual on the "Chorus and Title":

Do not attempt writing chorus lyrics that deal in regret, jealousy, hatred or any other negative emotions. These require a vocal performer of great depth to put it over well: the epic Euro balladeers or the kings of Country, the great soul men or the crown prince of hate - Johnny Rotten. You should stick to nonsense, pleasure, good times, "I wanna dance all night long, love you forever, or at least until the morning comes", but nothing too sensual; that too requires too much performance talent. Just remember there is a difference between bland cliche and cliche and only you can tell the difference in the context of the song you are constructing.

So make sure you find a title that can be used as the opening line in your chorus and that the chorus is no longer than eight bars.

Her Lyrics:

Friday, Friday, Gettin' down on Friday,

Everybody's looking forward to the weekend

Partying, Partying WOOOOOOOO

Partying, Partying WOOOOOOOO

Fun Fun Fun Fun - looking forward to the weekend. 

It's genius.

Canada really likes to copy the US even especially when it comes to not-so-good internet leglistation. If you're Canadian and you want to keep internet usage reasonable, visit StopTheMeter.ca. Some info from the site:

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are about to impose usage-based billing on YOU.

This means we're looking at a future where ISPs will charge per byte, the way they do with smart phones. If we allow this to happen Canadians will have no choice but to pay MUCH more for less Internet. Big Telecom companies are obviously trying to gouge consumers, control the Internet market, and ensure that consumers continue to subscribe to their television services.

These Big Telecom companies are forcing small competing ISPs to adopt the same pricing scheme, so that we have no choice but to pay these punitive fees.

This will crush innovative services, Canada's digital competitiveness, and your wallet.

We urgently need to send a clear message to Ottawa, saying that we won't stand by while some of the most profitable companies in the country indiscriminately add new fees to our Internet bills. Enough is enough.

UPDATE: The CRTC just made a decision that paves the way for new internet fees to be added to your bill. To stop this we need to raise our voices now more than ever.

Update: Federal government's stepped in, email from the Liberals:

Boris -- 

It’s another step towards an open and competitive internet in Canada, and it's thanks to you.

Late last night, news broke that Tony Clement will ask the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to reverse their decision on usage-based internet billing – a decision that allows internet service providers to impose download limits and new fees.

Our work is not yet done. We need to keep up the pressure until the CRTC’s decision is reversed once and for all.

Canadian families and businesses need open, affordable, unlimited internet access. The future of our economy depends on it. The Conservative government should have known that from the start.

When messages like yours reached us this past weekend – on Twitter and Facebook, by email, phone and fax – my Liberal colleagues and I knew what we had to do.

On Tuesday morning, we sided with you against the CRTC’s decision. By the end of the day, Liberal MPs on the Industry Committee had already begun an investigation. Then, yesterday, we kept the pressure on the Conservative government during Question Period in the House of Commons. At tonight’s meeting of the Industry Committee, Liberal MPs will tell CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein to reverse course.

This isn't the first time that you’ve stared down the Conservatives over an open internet — and that's why tens of thousands of you visited our action page athttp://www.liberal.ca/ubb/, to join our digital policy email list and help carry the fight into Parliament.

This is your movement. You rallied on Twitter. You wrote emails and called Tony Clement’s office. You made the difference.

We all know that there are wider issues at stake here. After five years of Stephen Harper, Canada still has no digital plan. The Conservatives’ proposed copyright bill contains unfair digital lock provisions. Canadians are less connected and face higher internet costs than citizens of other OECD countries. And don’t even get me started on the long-form census.

Liberals have been engaged on these issues. In 2009, we worked with theOpenmedia.ca / Save Our Net Coalition on Net Neutrality, a position that we support wholeheartedly. Last fall, we announced our Open Government Initiative, which will make government data accessible to all Canadians.

At the heart of our digital policy is a core Liberal value: we must make Canada more competitive and more innovative. That means expanding high-speed internet access to every region of the country, fair and equitable wholesale access, and transparent pricing.

We must build a digital strategy for Canada that embraces the energy, entrepreneurial spirit, and innovative creativity of consumers, businesses and digital influencers like you.

We'll keep the pressure on the Conservatives in Parliament to make sure they follow through and reverse the CRTC’s decision on usage-based billing. This victory is just a taste of what we can accomplish, if we continue this fight together.

I hope you’ll join the Liberal Party's digital policy email list athttp://www.liberal.ca/ubb/. Let’s build a more open, more competitive future for Canada.

Thank you for being engaged.

Michael Ignatieff