When it comes to matters of global affairs, I'm generally apolitical and let (wo)men smarter than me handle it.  But when it comes to solving technological problems born largely of common sense, the huge step forward and giant leap backwards irks me to no end. 

My good friend Carter has an interesting take on a escalating issue, largely favoring the iTunes App Store's model for building/distributing apps. 

I'm all about the best possible experience for everyone, which includes the developers building the apps and users who enjoy them.  We really started to make some headway in software with the uptake in mid-2000s Web 2.0 space, with AJAX and other JavaScript-based abilities emulating a lot of UI enhancements that were previously only thought to be exclusive to Flash or other esoteric disciplines that everyone doesn't always play nicely with (yes, Apple, I'm talking to you).

My thing isn't denouncing on the existence of apps for native mobile operating systems - it's the setback they create, which at the macro level damages how we all stay connected.  A mammoth service like Pandora works great because it's supported across as many as 9 major mobile OSes, each with its own idiosyncratic nuances that are par for the support course for companies at that scale, but hell on earth for smaller shops.

Garage operations simply can't afford to engineer and maintain that many versions of the same core service.  And from the user standpoint, it bleeds into the ever-deadly vendor lock-in (which of course organizations like Apple, Google and RIM secretly pray for)...imagine digging Chad Ochocinco's app so much, but one day hating your iPhone. You couldn't switch over to a different phone because it's only on that platform.  

Coupling is something we started to move positively away from with web development with the turn of the new century...only to come back to it when third-party software developers started writing platform-specific apps.  

So the solution I most favor: keep the innovation on the Web. You build a single service with open, standardized technologies (e.g., HTML(5), JavaScript, CSS, XML, et al.).  Deployment is a snap, as is pushing updates and making bug fixes. Access is both mobile (via multiple connected devices) and portable (from any computer).  But that means the vendors need to build better web browsers, and that's coming.

My $0.02 on the matter. 

You?  :-)