We are used by the iPhone marketing that "There's an app for that", but are all the app useful and what are the advantages to use an app over a plain "old", standard, multiplatform HTML5 website? Here's the new Mashable App for Android.

Now some disadvantages you'll get with a this kind of application (on the right):

• You can't zoom in or out the font
• You can't select the text
• You can't see embedded YouTube videos!
• ...
• You'll have to update this app
• You'll have to maintain different apps for different platforms (android, iphone, blackberry, nokia, webos, bada, windows phone 7,..)
• The '&' symbol is not escaped correctly

Can somebody explain me why this apps exists?