In tests conducted by The Register and outside developers, Web apps performed about two and a half times slower when launched from the iPhone or iPad home screen than when launched from Apple’s Safari browser. “It’s unclear whether these are accidental bugs or issues consciously introduced by Apple,” writes The Resgister “But the end result is that, at least in some ways, the iOS platform makes it harder for web apps to replace native applications distributed through the Apple App Store, where the company takes a 30 per cent cut of all applications sold.”
Many of the performance problems with Web apps that launch from the home screen come from three factors: they use a slower JavaScript engine than the Safari browser, they can’t use some Web caching systems, and they must use an older “synchronous mode.”
