So what’s the World Wide Web Consortium up to lately? It looks to me like they’re trying to level the playing field with native apps – here’s just a handful of some upcoming standards:

• Runtime and Security Model for Web Applications
  How an application can be installed, updated and packaged. It also specifies how an app can be put into the background, be put back in the foreground, or woken up.
• Push API
  A way for application servers to send messages to webapps, whether or not the webapp is active in a browser window. Uses Server-Sent Events, SMS, SIP for Instant Messaging, or OMA Push.
• Ambient Light Events
  Events that correspond to a light sensor detecting the presence of a light
• Proximity Events
  Events that correspond to a proximity sensor detecting the presence of a physical object
• Vibration API
  Access the vibration mechanism of the hosting device
• Battery Status API
  Information about the battery status of the hosting device
• MediaStream Recording
  Recording video and audio
• WebRTC
  Allows media and data to be sent over the network directly to another browser
• Contacts Manager API
  Manage contacts stored in the system’s address book
• Web Notifications
  Displaying simple notifications to the user
• Web Alarms API Specification
  Access to the device alarm settings
• Web Cryptography API
  Hashing, signature generation and verification, encryption and decryption