It's all about the funnel.

For 100% mobile apps, intelligent marketing is nigh impossible since there is no funnel- Apple doesn't tell you impressions v conversion rate of app pages.

Without that information, apps that are 100% mobile, with no web component, cannot market effectively.

Apps with web components, on the other hand, can measure the rate of online signups to app purchases, and optimize accordingly.

Mobile only products use free apps as a lead-gen tool to convert to paid.

My company is moving to the web model, simply so we can implement effective marketing, without a clear RPU and conversion rate.