First, let me apologize for any typos here as I'm about to get on a plane AND using my friend's first generation netbook (a.k.a. the ones with the small keyboards).

But after reading Mike Brophy's post on Apple I had to add one thing.  Though first I want to share a quote.  The whole article's good but this gives you his basic point...

The next obvious challenge is that web apps have been second-class citizens in terms of functionality compared to native iPhone apps. It’s true that web apps on the iPhone previously had limited potential as they couldn’t access location services, the accelerometer, or the core graphics engine, but with the release of iPhone OS 3.0 the situation is improving – geolocation can now be tapped from a web app. Games with the robust graphics of Assasin’s Creed won’t be possible, but games aren’t taking the brunt of the ax-wielding AppStore Reviewers – innovative and useful apps such as the Google Voice app are. The first question a developer should ask before writing a line of code is “can this be done as a web app” and, if so, it should be done as a web app.

(I made a similar point here by the way)

The point I wanted to add  (to his otherwise well made argument) is this.  We live in a world where most tech pundits believe the momentum is shifting from desktop apps to web apps.  The crunchpad from my very last post is a web only machine.  You have Google Apps, Zoho and others making viable replacements for desktop apps while Adobe, Microsoft and others race to make richer development environments for the web space.

So why is everyone pushing the App store on the iPhone (or any other mobile device for that matter)?  Did we not learn our lesson from the desktop? 

Don't get me wrong.  If you're making a game or need to use the camera then you need to look at a native app.  But otherwise you really need to look at creating a web app.  Which, as an added bonus, will open your app to all the Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile users as well.

(And those who think iPhone Web Apps are dead really need to pull out their iPhone and visit that little link in their favorites)