“the sensors are coming” – why it will more and more be about native apps

The New York Times just discussed the coming generation of new smartphone sensors.: altimeters, heart monitors, temperature and humidity sensors, and even mood detectors. While we at Rhomobile are very excited about Rhodes allowing use of web skills (HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, Ruby, and MVC) to write smartphone apps, we have always pointed out that usage is about NATIVE apps not mobile web apps. Today using HTML5 alone yields apps that are missing many of the capabilities that make a smartphone app compelling: use of local PIM contacts and calendar, the camera, GPS, accelerometer, barcode, signature capture and Near Field Communications (which we just announced support for last week).

There is a huge gap between what you can do with a mobile web app and what Rhodes lets you do to build a NATIVE smartphone app (but using web skills for your interfaces). With all of the new capabilities coming in smartphones this gap between what you can do with HTML alone and what you can do with a framework like Rhodes that lets you is only widening.