For most, starting with a mobile website is the best option as the cost is lowest to develop and you reach the widest audience.
If warranted, you can follow up with apps for specific platforms.
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I fully agree with you, mobile apps are the way to go, and you can still build native apps for advance feature or mnetisation as well as part of a strategy to reach a broader audience, I use http://www.gmbhnews.com as a base for mobile apps to help bloggers achieve this.
I agree. Native apps are great if you have some features you want to implement that aren't practical in a web app, but I can't think of any case where a website with a native app for mobile devices has any good excuse not to also have a web app to fall back on.
With things like games, you can see that an app could be the only option. While HTML5 is almost there, it still doesn't offer the performance and capabilities of a native app, while Apple's stance on Flash means Flash-based games are a no-no.
That's the best approach for most companies. User feedback and usage stats will then determine the next step.