Native platform providers boast with the large new feature sets they add to their OS’es every year. But when comparing themselves directly to the web platform, they’re conveniently missing the simple fact that they can do so only for the lack of standardization. Corporate platforms come and go and rarely last longer than a decade.
The web is built for the long haul. Through a painstakingly difficult standardization effort at the W3C, the brightest minds in the world are making sure that the platform you built upon is rock solid, consistent and well supported.
This is not a direct advantage to users, and not even a direct advantage to developers today, but it has to be a consideration to every strategically thinking CTO on the planet (unless all you aim for is to quick sell your company). If you’re directing an infrastructure and R&D effort involving hundreds of engineers, all building shared technology, you better make sure the infrastructure you build is built on a solid foundation.
If you build a web app today, it will run in browsers 10 years from now. Good luck trying the same with your favorite mobile OS (excluding Firefox OS).
