I'm going to say the reason is more simple. Opening tabs is a nicer user experience than opening up one app after another.
People complain that web apps don't behave "natively" and need to reinvent things that native apps get for free. This is true. But native apps also need to reinvent things like bookmarking and tabs that web apps get for free -- or in most cases they simply live without these things and people miss them without realizing it.
I like that some of the web's UI language like the back button is finding its way into operating systems like Android, at the same time that native app capabilities are finding their way into browsers. But browsers still have the edge in "advanced" navigation.
[1] disclosure: I'm a mobile Firefox developer.