"You can run on less expensive hardware, because you've got less technology going on under the covers. You don't have to pay the penalty of a big smart phone operating system if you're running directly on the web."
That's misleading. Sure, you might need fewer resources to pull something like a simple web page. But try using web apps that are the equivalent of native apps on Android or iOS, and you'll need a lot better hardware to run those just as well.
Could you explain why? I might be looking at it a bit too naively, but how system build for running interpreted JavaScript apps can perform better than one designed for compiled ones?
It doesn't perform better. But at the low end, you don't need to bootstrap a java VM (like Android) just to check your email and browse the web etc. You can do the little things on less hardware.
No, but you have to bring along a whole browser just to interpret code that checks the mail...
Anyway you spin it the low end that can't manage android will never in a million years be able to run an "OS" in javascript. There is a reason they demo it on a SGSII ;)
You just need to look at the original Pre. It was less expensive hardware (by today's standards) and it has webOS with web apps, and apps on the Pre always suffered inferior performance compared with apps on Android phones with similar hardware. It wasn't until the Touchpad that webOS apps had good performance, and even then the dual-core processor with 1GB RAM wasn't enough, they needed a couple of OS updates to get app performance up to speed.
That's misleading. Sure, you might need fewer resources to pull something like a simple web page. But try using web apps that are the equivalent of native apps on Android or iOS, and you'll need a lot better hardware to run those just as well.