The question was not whether native apps generally make sense, but whether "the government should also be investing heavily in mobile apps?"
And I think that the policy to focus on mobile web first is sound for that use case.
And I think that the policy to focus on mobile web first is sound for that use case.
And that depends entirely on use case. A generalized "web first before native" seems misguided. If this was, for example, a schedule app for the tube, a weather service, or any such thing that users would can be expected to use daily, then an app IMO makes more sense than a website.
People love hoarding things, and downloading them with the "I'm going to be super efficient with this new tool!" thinking when in fact they barely even touch it after having downloaded it. My brother's iphone now has I think 6 full pages of apps... and I'm pretty sure a lot of times he spends more time searching for the app he's looking for than he would have to spend simply opening up chrome and typing in the URL.
I'm also worried that if you give these companies access to your phone by going native they're going to continue getting sneakier and sneakier to try to get your attention in artful ways to ultimately sell you stuff (or sell your information to others). The power lies with the user if he sets the boundaries, and indeed, I believe he would be best served by making the decision of keeping the web on the web.
My question is: how can we make the web experience better, so it can meet the native experience headway? How much time will it take to get there until the web experience is truly comparable or better than the native experience?
AFAIK this already happens to some extent.
So taxpayers have to either pay a private entity for access to public data, or download scummy "free" apps and have it hoover up their private data.
Opening up APIs should not preclude the government from building its own frontends, in whatever format makes sense.
However if you want app for your iphone 6 that integrates with the wardrobe planner that tells you what to wear when it is wet outside I think it is reasonable to let that development be funded privately.