Usually, when people hear “mobile app” they assume you mean native app. This is a program that runs on a handheld device (phone, tablet, e-reader, iPod Touch, etc.) which has a “smart” operating system which supports standalone software and can connect to the internet via wifi or a wireless carrier network. Usually people download native mobile apps from app stores such as the Apple app store or the Android Market.

A mobile web app is software that uses technologies such as Javascript or HTML5 to provide interaction, navigation, or customization capabilities. These programs run within a mobile device’s web browser. This means that they’re delivered wholly on the fly, as needed, via the internet; they are not separate programs that get stored on the user’s mobile device.