How to decide between a responsive website or a native mobile app
thenextweb.com
thenextweb.com
(1) Leveraging the growth of the web
History has proven that the web is becoming more mature and stable, and that it offers an excellent platform for development in most cases. The tools and frameworks being developed allow developers to build more efficiently. The web is a solid backbone that has only gotten stronger over time. Native mobile development has also grown in this aspect. However, how do we know the native pattern won't follow the same course as desktop applications? Sure, there will always be use cases for native mobile apps, just as there are critical desktop applications that haven't been replaced yet. The web seems to be more consistent, and as it continues to grow, it only continues to fuel the hybrid development community.
(2) Building off of a maturing mobile community.
For the most part, hybrid development is simply an abstraction over native APIs. If the native app development ecosystem slows down, becomes more mature, and stable - it helps the hybrid ecosystem. The fact that iOS and Android are becoming the standard helps reinforce this idea. This allows us to build those abstractions and tools that make hybrid development possible. Exponential growth and change are the enemies of hybrid.
New native platforms and functionalities are like earthquakes. The architects and engineers on the surface who rebuild are the hybrid ecosystem. Over time, the world introduces new tools for these architects and engineers to make them more productive. This is the web - the fuel for the hybrid world.
So what happens if the earthquakes become smaller and less frequent? What happens when the architects and engineers begin to become more effective, at the same time?
Anyway, other than the previous points, the author summarizes the decisions to be made by businesses quite nicely. It's all about measuring the trade-offs...