I was recently questioned by a colleague who was surprised to learn after all the talk about mobile apps and smartphones, that Google doesn’t have a library of apps. By that, I mean Google lacks native apps for platforms like iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone, and yes, Android.

This is the heart of the industry-wide “apps vs. mobile web” debate. Apple wants an app-centric world because it gets 30 percent of app sales. It also wants the functionality endemic to native apps in order to maintain the quality standard that sells iPhones.

Google on the other hand wants a mobile Web-centric world because, put simply, that’s where search happens. Conversely, think of the lessened need for search while you are within narrowly-defined sets of content and functionality, otherwise known as apps.

But there are still user expectations for app-based home screen navigation, which Google doesn’t want to forgo on Android handsets. Here’s where web apps come in. Think of them as glorified bookmarks: websites masquerading as apps on smartphone homescreens throughout the land.

Wild Wild Web

Many believe apps vs. mobile web isn’t really a debate because the right answer is “both”. That’s slightly Utopian as the real world contains resource constraints for mobile product developers who must decide, if not which platform to develop for – at least which one to develop first.

Though comScore puts app and mobile web use at parity, there has been much greater attention and resources devoted to mobile app development. For developers, there’s greater functionality in smartphone SDKs, and for users it’s a warm fuzzy environment (i.e. app stores), to discover apps.

Compare that to the mobile web which is reminiscent of the wild west that was the early desktop web. Content is under-optimized and hard to get to. Mobile website

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2127356/Googles-Battle-for-the-Mobile-Web