I'll second that "incredibly short sighted" judgement. It's efforts like Hewitts, which works exceptionally well for a days work, that lead to superior mobile web apps.

Monoculture is seldom a good thing. Though native apps have strong advantages, web apps also have advantages in terms of deployment, compatibility on multiple platforms, and (possibly) freedom from Apple's walled garden.

Just like everything else: use the right tool for the job, and choose your trade-offs.

Being able to develop one simple web app that make the page so much more accessible on a smartphone without the need to develop 3 native apps (iOS, Android and perhaps Windows Phone 7?) is pretty nice and cost effective.

There are a lot of native apps that are easily reproduced in pure HTML, CSS and Javascript.