stevenf:

Slightly longer version of a tweet from this morning:

Apple makes the iPhone SDK. They’re also one of (if not the) biggest contributors to WebKit.

WebKit’s capabilities continue to grow exponentially. I’m blown away by what can be done with it today. If development continues apace (and there’s no reason to believe it won’t) it seems realistic that within a reasonable amount of time it will be possible to create web apps that feel exactly like native iPhone apps.

All Apple would have to do to close the loop completely is expose a few extra things to WebKit via JavaScript. And therein lies my question.

Apple makes money from the iPhone developer program, and the sale of iPhone apps. They do not make money from WebKit apps.

As the major benefactor to both the iPhone and WebKit, does this present a conflict of interest within Apple?

To put it another way, if WebKit begins to present a serious threat of undermining the app store ecosystem, it appears to be in Apple’s financial interest to hobble WebKit development. What would you do if you were Apple?

Web apps pose more of a threat than simply derailing the App Store; they offer a way to offer cross platform applications that can run on any device. I think the App Store is currently the biggest reason to buy an iPhone. Web apps would take that away. One thing is for sure - if web apps take off in a big way, Apple needs to have a device that provides a cutting edge browser to remain competitive. If they don’t, others will.

I think there is always going to be a market for some native applications, such as games that make heavy use of graphics. Graphics quality matters, and games deployed as native applications will have the edge in that department for many years to come.