Martin Gordon's Blog

Let's compare how many clicks it takes to get to weather, stocks, notes, etc on the iPhone versus any web app:

Apple apps:

1. Push sleep/wake or home button
2. Slide to unlock
3. Push Home button
4. Click on app

Web app:

1. Push sleep/wake or home button
2. Slide to unlock
3. Push home button
4. Click on Safari
5. Click on Bookmarks
6. Best case: The app is in my top 5 bookmarks
7. Worst case: I have to scroll/click on a folder before clicking on the app
8. Wait for page to load
9. Best case: App uses cookies to store my data and we're done
10. Worst case:
• Enter user name and password
• Click to login
• Wait for page to load

That's 4 actions for a Home screen app and 9-12 for a web app. Result: Web apps require 2-3x as many actions (and possibly more than that in time due to page loading)!

It's a good thing that Apple's apps are sufficient for me, though I am hopeful for an SDK eventually and those software updates rumored to be released sometime between now and Leopard.