Web apps from homescreen run upto 2.5 times slower than from the browser.
According to The Register, Apple maybe restricting web apps by deliberately slowing them down on iOS devices.
There are two ways a web app can run: by adding it to the homescreen or running it directly from the browser. Developers are saying that web apps running from the home screen does not use the new Nitro Javascript engine introduced in the iOS 4.3 update. As a result, according to test conducted by The Register, web apps ran between two and two-and-a-half times slower when launched form the homescreen into full screen mode compared to browsing the same app in Safari. Web apps are also unable to tap into the device’s caching system, which allows an app to run in offline mode, as well as more advanced rendering modes.
Citing an “unnamed developer”, Register says that Apple’s Mobile Safari team is aware of the issue, but said that they will not be addressing the issue at all. The site then said “Apple isn’t degrading the speed of homescreen web apps. It’s boosting the speed of web apps in the browser.” Though essentially true, for users it makes no difference and ultimately works as disadvantage.
While most blogs are calling this as a ploy from Apple to push developers into using its App Store, where the company has more control over the apps, Maximiliano Firtman, the mobile programmer who carried out the tests for Register, believes that Apple is may not be the evil-kenvil we are making out to be.
”I don’t believe this is a deliberate attempt from Apple. I can’t be 100% sure because I don’t work at Apple, but I’m not seeing any excuse to do that. I believe it’s more a “missing feature”, a security problem, an App Store Rules problem, or maybe a bug,” he wrote on his blog.
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