What is the biggest limitation of making/using webapps? I'm thinking that when you use localstorage, offline-browsing and geo-abilities thaht you get from html5 the differences are quite small (except for games).
The great benefit from using webapps is that they are cross-platfrom compatible!
One of the biggest limitation is access to hardware. You can't access USB ports, specialized hardware you might have (printers, bardcode readers), and other stuff, and of course, you don't have access to some very important APIs that you need today to run games (DirectX, OpenGL).
But I agree: every day they are fewer reasons to not go with a WebApp instead of a Native APP.
For iOS: When using geolocation for webapp, the user will get prompt about giving location access every time, which could be annoying for the user. Native app, only the first time. The UI performance is also not as smooth as native. Scrolling in webview has a "slower" acceleration compared to native view scrolling.
Performance is one major difference. I see from around 20X to over 200X speed improvements when converting from Javascript to compiled C/Objective C code. One can also do real-time audio and video processing in native code, as well as low-level networking, etc.
One interesting limitation (HTML5-wise) I see is from a point of intellectual property. Since a lot of code (raw JavaScript + HTML) is exposed to the user, you have to carefully decide which components will be "open" to end users. Not aware of any standard way to lock or hide your IP once it leaves your server.
Webapps are great for reaching multiple hardware devices, you can update your app a lot faster, thus feedback is quicker. However, your users will require an always-on internet connection to use your webapp, that's probably the biggest negative about them in comparison to a native (offline) app.
