So what is the difference between a ‘mobile web app’ and a ‘native app’?
Mobile Web App – This is an internet enabled application that has specific functionality for a device such as a tablet or smartphone. It can only be accessed through a phones web-browser (which for an iPhone would be ‘Safari’) and therefore does not need to be downloaded and stored on the device. (Viswanathan. P, 2015)
Native App – This is an application that has to be downloaded onto the device, usually downloaded from an ‘app store’ (Viswanathan. P, 2015). They can be charged for or they can be made free for download but either way they are stored on the devices memory.
via The touch-screen revolution – mobile web apps vs native apps | os64’s blog.