When a client asks our professional services team to help them develop a mobile application, one of the first questions we have to answer is whether a native, web or hybrid app is the best solution for their needs.

A native solution means programming in Objective-C on the iPhone/iPad or Java on Android devices. Native apps usually lead to a more immersive experience than web apps, since you have access to more of the phone's features, like geolocation, the camera, and the user's contact list. They can be deployed to the phone's market place providing good discoverability and a simple way to merchandise.

Although the web app, which runs in the phone's browser, does not have access to some of the phone's features and cannot be deployed to the phone's market place, it has the advantage of being portable across platforms. The same code base can be used, for example, to support both the iPhone and Android. This makes the web app less expensive and more maintainable if the client needs to support more than just one type of phone.

But what if you need to support multiple phone platforms, deploy to the phone's market place, and access the user's contact list? This is where the hybrid mobile app shines.

A hybrid mobile app gives us the best of both worlds. Using a development framework such as PhoneGap or Appcelerator Titanium, you can develop in a cross platform manner using web technologies (HTML, CSS, and Javascript) while still getting access to the phone's underlying features and being able to deploy to the various app marketplaces. This is accomplished by wrapping the web application in a native embedded web browser. This technique is becoming an even stronger option with the advent of good front end frameworks like jQuery Mobile and the more iPhone-focused jQTouch that will make web and hybrid apps feel more natural on the target device.

Hybrid mobile apps should be especially appealing to enterprise customers who need more longevity in their custom applications. It's not fun to realize that the native Blackberry app that you paid for a few years back is now unusable because the whole company has switched to iPhones. Web technologies are not going anywhere, and are a great bet to ensure your app has a long life.