Why LinkedIn dumped HTML5 and went native for its mobile apps

Enormously complex application with widgets, dynamic graphs, etc. Close to nothing had to be customized for those targets because it used standardization and shims where possible, and already was built to work across the major desktop platforms. I read this "you'll have to dramatically rewrite anyways" claim a lot and it simply doesn't ring true.

My point is that iOS/Android apps are not hard to build natively. That time spent means you can get the best the device can offer.

Is it possible for you to point to the app? I've done a significant amount of Android development (no iOS dev to this point) and my natural assumption is that a short effort app by people new to the platform would generally be terrible (which is sadly the case for most apps on the platform).

  > Html is elastic by nature, and html 5 will win over
  > native apps because it is elastic.

But all that has nothing to do with winning or loosing. Users don't give a shit if it is elastic or rigid. Does it work smoothly? Great. Does it look great? Superb. Was it coded with HTML/CSS/JS? Who cares… unless it impacts the first two.

Web apps are optimal when you need to access them from multiple OSs and develop them only once. That last part "develop them only once" is important. If you want to go beyond what a Web app can do, you have now made your Web app users second class citizens. And, if you avoid implementing platform-specific features or overall architectures, you make your app a second class citizen among apps on the native platform.

In other words, for anything that more than filling out forms and looking at data, it's worth doing the best job on every platform with a significant number of users, and that means platform-specific implementations.

Or look at it this way: What if LinkedIn morphed into a kind of "people dashboard" for enterprise users, with an architecture inspired by Facebook Home, but for CRM, not for your Farmville buddies. Could that even be contemplated in a cross-platform HTML5 implementation?

Tl;dr: Operating systems still matter because they look, work, and interact differently, and they impart their advantages and restrictions to apps.

  > If the experience is the same in HTML5 as the App Store,
  > then Apple loses

Why it is so important to kill native in favour of web? How about learning (not really learning, just stopping to ignore) which is best for that and use accordingly? You need a website? Great, there is your HTML and CSS. You need performant app? Great, there is your SDK. You want a mix of both? Cool, take a good close look and choose wisely. Maybe mix of both.

I don't see a call to replace native desktop apps with HTML and JavaScript, why are people so hell-bent about all or nothing on mobile?

We've had no issues with it so far and I heard the same criticisms you did. If you make sure not to store too much stuff in localStorage (there is a limit for UIWebViews) you should be fine.

> My concern with HTML is that if FB and LinkedIn were unable to muster the required resources to overcome the engineering challenges of HTML, chances are I won't have those resources either

I get that, but it does overestimate the capabilities and resources of FB and LinkedIn. In the end, they are just developers like any other developers solving the same problems everyone else is, and simply throwing more money at the problem doesn't usually fix things. Keep in mind that there's a lot more pressure on FB and LinkedIn to deliver perfection so they are going to be less likely to "stick it out".

> Native is more predictable.

I agree, and there are lots of other benefits to native as well. They must be weighed against the detriments: having to write the same app multiple times for multiple platforms, having to play by Apple's rules, not being able to update apps for customers immediately (that's a huge problem IMO), working with painful layout tools, etc. As always, it's important to weight the pros and cons before choosing a strategy.

> Would you say your team is extraordinary in its capacity to wrangle with HTML, or is something like this available to your average YC startup, or to most startups out there?

I assure you we are not extraordinary. Anybody with a very basic level of native programming experience and who is competent with HTML5/CSS3 and the latest javascript frameworks (backbone, ember, angular, knockout, etc) can replicate what we did. I think the reason it seems extraordinary is because you only ever see articles about big, trendy companies ditching HTML5. "Small unknown team builds great HTML5 mobile app" just doesn't have the same punch. I also believe there is a bit of religious war going on between web developers and native developers so there's always a frenzy whenever there's a drop or two of blood in the water. Ignore all that crap and just choose the solution that suits both your app's requirements and your skills best.