Unfortunate State of Mobile Web

"Changes in HTML5 in recent years have been absolutely mind blowing" - my mind will be blown when I will not need third-party packages to position controls on page in a fluid, reliable and logical way. HTML will always lag behind because of compatibility requirements. I am all for fragmentation. You get better languages because companies compete and you get better compensation because you can specialize.

In my opinion, unfortunate at this moment only. Just like as it's been with web on the desktops. Hardware will get better, browsers will get better and engines will be faster which will allow for web apps to be at least as comfortable and usable as native apps.

I don't know how we'll deal with problem of discoverability and payments - after all it's way more easier to do that on iTunes/Play, but eventually there will be solution to most of the problems.

Apple certainly doesn't want to give such freedom to users and developers - they like to have a cut of the sales very much, but they can't just wait it out - Android/FirefoxOS/Any new OS won't be waiting.

Agree with the author it's lamentable how mobile dev is almost totally focused on native apps. Solid UX is possible now on the mobile web but unless the user adds the site to their home screen (on iOS) the top and even the bottom of the browser window takes up valuable screen real estate. App stores provide a better monetization and distribution scheme than browsers do on mobile, which makes it hard to justify spending time on a mobile web site.

The big gripe I have with mobile web support today is Safari on IOS 7 where it is now impossible to permanently fix an element at the bottom of the window.