Pluralsight published my new course on using HTML5 to build mobile applications the other day: http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/Courses/TableOfContents?courseName=native-mobile-apps-with-html5

A subscriber on Twitter questioned the title He thought it should have the term “Hybrid” in the title.  After doing some google research – I decided he was correct – it is clear that from a “marketing” point-of-view a native app that uses HTML5 through a native component (UIWebView in the case of iOS, WebView in the case of Android, and the WebBrowser control in the case of Windows Phone 7) are commonly called “Hybrid” apps.  So we changed the title of the course

From a technical point-of-view I find the term to be slightly misleading.  Here is my definition of a “native” mobile application:  A mobile application that can be deployed to the mobile device’s AppStore/Marketplace.

Delineating an app on any other technical basis I think confuses the issue more than clarifies it.

Here is another way I think about it – with Windows 8 moving to Metro apps that can be built in HTML5/JavaScript – are those apps going to be “Hybrid” Metro apps?   I think not.