> I still find it crazy that the world went from gmail/googlemaps to appstores. It's beyond me why most apps arent anything more than cached javascript and uitoolkits.
* because javascript is still not as efficient as native code
* because code efficiency translates directly into battery life
* because downloading code costs bandwidth and battery life
* because html rendering engines were too slow and kludgy at the time
* because people and/or device vendors value a common look and feel on their system
* because not everyone wants to use google services/services on US soil
Interestingly the Japanese smartphone market had most of these fixed by 1997 or so; defining a sane http/html subset (as opposed to wap). Less ambitious than (some) current apps - but probably a much saner approach. Maybe it's not too late for Firefox OS and/or Jolla.
[Edit: on a minimal micro-scale of simplification, I just came across this article (and follow up tutorial article) on how to just use npm and eschew grunt/gulp/whatnot in automating lint/test/concat/minify/process js/css/sass &c. Sort of apropos although it's definitely in the category of "improving tactics when both strategy and logistics are broken": prevous discussion on hn: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8721078 (but read the article and follow-up -- he makes a better case than some of the comments indicate)]
but in the javascript model most of the processing is offloaded to the cloud when possible, making it MORE energy efficient. ideally you are just transmitting input and dom changes or operational transformations.
timesharing.
web ecosystems can still enforce common uitoolkits.
* because javascript is still not as efficient as native code
* because code efficiency translates directly into battery life
* because downloading code costs bandwidth and battery life
* because html rendering engines were too slow and kludgy at the time
* because people and/or device vendors value a common look and feel on their system
* because not everyone wants to use google services/services on US soil