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I've recommended a "web app first" approach to some of my clients.

You might find parse.com services cover your user and notifications requirements, and perhaps even your REST backend.

thanks, the web app approach certainly makes a lot of sense. my only concern is whether html5 can get access to the phone's resources like the camera, dialer, etc.

Cordova will provide access to the camera:

http://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/2.5.0/cordova_camera_camer...

And maybe the dialer:

https://github.com/gibsosmart/cordova-phone-dialer

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