Both companies cripple HTML5 support on their mobile OS. Developers are left with almost no choice but to write native apps for their platform (if they care about execution speed).
It fits perfectly in the picture that Apple doesn't allow alternative browser engines. Chrome for iOS just embeds UIWebView and there is no Firefox for the same reason. The JavaScript JIT is disabled for UIWebView, and only enabled for Safari.app.
In an ideal world, one could write powerful HTML5 apps that run on Android, iOS, FirefoxOS and desktop browsers. And AppsStores would allow one to add an entry to the apps web URL or at least provide an non-crippled WebView so that one can write a simple wrapper app (or use phonegap/etc).
Google allows many browsers on Android, you can install Firefox or Aurora and use Firefox apps. You can run all the newest HTML5 features on Chrome for Android. The promise of HTML5 is the open web, not apps in the Google Play store.
Right now I'm running WebGL apps on my Android phone, and in Chrome you can put web apps on your homescreen with a single click in the menu. You don't need to go through any store, and you can open it like any Android app from the homescreen.
It fits perfectly in the picture that Apple doesn't allow alternative browser engines. Chrome for iOS just embeds UIWebView and there is no Firefox for the same reason. The JavaScript JIT is disabled for UIWebView, and only enabled for Safari.app.
In an ideal world, one could write powerful HTML5 apps that run on Android, iOS, FirefoxOS and desktop browsers. And AppsStores would allow one to add an entry to the apps web URL or at least provide an non-crippled WebView so that one can write a simple wrapper app (or use phonegap/etc).