Using Web content in a smartphone app

There are many reasons to use Web contents in a smartphone app. Its biggest advantage is quick and easy updating.   Publishing an app update involves many steps, and takes at least quite a few days.  It will take much longer time for all the users to install the updates. Publishing Web contents usually takes seconds, and users get the updated contents instantly.

Designing Web pages for smartphones is different from doing it for desktop browsers, but the is easier due to the limited capability phone browsers. Windows Phone has the WebBrowser control that makes integrating Web browsing with an app a snap. The burden is on the Web contents.  Designing Web Sites for Phone Browsers by Microsoft is a perfect short article that one should read before diving into coding and Web design for phones.  One should pay special attention to the meta tag viewport which needs to be properly specified for most Web pages in order to make them show up in phone browsers as desired.

WebBrowser control disables script by default. In most cases, IsScriptEnable property should be set to true.