The Web is Winning in Mobile Development; The Rise of PWAs

It may be the beginning of the end for native mobile apps.

New research from Ionic, a provider of a popular cross-platform mobile development technology stack, indicates that hybrid apps currently dominate and progressive Web apps are growing rapidly.

Ionic's Developer Survey revealed that hybrid is overtaking traditional native development; two years ago, 20 percent of developers were building with native tools, but in the next two years it could fall to just three percent.

An increasing number (32 percent) of developers are also working on PWAs, which (as you likely discovered in this Design & Development Digest article on PWAs from the July 2017 issue of Website Magazine) make possible the features consumers expect from native apps to the mobile browser experience and run in a secure container accessible to anyone on the web. 

"It may be counter-intuitive to some, but the web is increasingly important to mobile user experiences," noted Max Lynch, co-founder and CEO, Ionic.

"There are only so many apps people are willing to download to a device, and fewer still that they use regularly - so brands need a seamless experience across platforms to meet and engage customers on their terms. I am not at all surprised to see the boomerang back to the web as a core platform to support hybrid and browser-based apps."