"Mobile" refers to the user, not the device

Everything about the right approach to how we design and build a mobile application has to be in the context of that idea.

We try to start with the most usable platform first. If the device needs the camera, calendar, or address book, a "native" app like an iPhone or iPad app may be the right choice.

For other products, especially content-only products such as text, images, videos, and landing pages, a mobile web app makes sense because:

• All modern smartphones can render HTML.
• Modern standards and CSS frameworks make "responsive" designs easy to implement.
• We can create and iterate quickly.
• We can deploy new versions multiple times a day.

For some products just getting started, it makes sense to start by rapidly building a mobile web app to provide out the product, with the plan to build a native version later.