by Robert Wenig, Founder and CTO —
Perhaps my thinking was backwards.
When I first started thinking mobile, I had it in my head that the functionality of a mobile app would be a subset of the existing desktop-browser experience.
When you start thinking about the:
- The itty-bitty twit screen
- Lack of keyboard
- Limited bandwidth
- Limited OS and processor
- Limited storage
And then the fragmented eco-system of iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android, Blackberry, Palm, Nokia, Windows Phone with different OS levels and the like — the “subset” mentality was easy to make. Who is going to build native apps — isn’t every device manufacturer just going to try and build a browser that approximated desktop agility?
Perhaps somebody put something in my Coke, but now I’m seeing things differently. Native apps on mobile devices change the game.
Mobile applications will be a superset of Web-based applications. Why/how?
Native mobile apps can use all of the functionality/features of the device:
- Scanners/cameras
- GPS
- Rich media
- 2-way video
- Gee — it’s a phone, so what about using the phone as part of the app?
- Other sensors
What if native mobile apps are more secure than desktop web? Out-of-band authentication, tight links to the device (IMEI, serial number, etc.)?
What happens when a mobile phone becomes the more secure version of the credit card? (By the way, this is already happening.)
Have we forgotten the most basic tenet of mobile — it’s portable. When the device is with you at all times, won’t you use it more? The more you use it, the more optimized the application needs to be.


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