Why Mobile Web Apps Are Slow

Drew Crawford:

So what I’m going to do in this post is try to bring some actual evidence to bear on the problem, instead of just doing the shouting match thing. You’ll see benchmarks, you’ll hear from experts, you’ll even read honest-to-God journal papers on point. There are — and this is not a joke — over 100 citations in this blog post. I’m not going to guarantee that this article will convince you, nor even that absolutely everything in here is totally correct — it’s impossible to do in an article this size — but I can guarantee this is the most complete and comprehensive treatment of the idea that many iOS developers have — that mobile web apps are slow and will continue to be slow for the foreseeable future.

Remarkably detailed analysis. Must-read piece. The comments are rather fascinating as well — denial runs strong among the web app true believers.

★ Friday, 12 July 2013