You really hit a nerve here, based on the responses. Choice between mobile apps and web is complex for thinking organizations. Openness, agility, platform commitment, business models and engineering resources all figure into it.
In my own home, I use apps for most things on my phone. My wife uses mobile web for virtually everything.
I type this on a Chromebook, my preferred casual computing device. I have yet to find a common task that I can not accomplish using this device. All these tasks leverage web technology and the mobile web in some ways. This platform happens to be the fastest growing platform among schools, which possibly will be for the generation being raised on it.
Will they choose to install apps? Manage upgrades and lock-in? Time will tell.
Mobile web offers a unique agility for the end user to quickly find a tool they works for them — which is lacking in most app ecosystems.
