Is Responsive Web Design a long term mobile strategy?

I attended a talk hosted by Mobile Portland today on the choice of Responsive Web Design versus native app.  A local startup, Athlelepath, talked about their experience and decision in building their website using Responsive Web Design.  The talk by the front end developer of the company, Christian Reed, was thought-provoking for those of us who are considering the trade off between mobile web vs native app for our online business or website.

Athletepath: Small Screen Experience

Athletepath: Wide Screen Experience

Athletepath, whose business is to "improve how athletes interact with race result", started out with a  website for wide screen browsers (i.e. your desktop and laptop).  As their business was to enable race directors, participants as well as the spectators to get access to race results, they had good to reason to get on mobile devices quick.  Their reason for using Responsive Design as their mobile web solution was that it enabled them to get to market with limited resources and quickly.   

With Hicksdesign as their inspiration and resource, they built out their responsive design mobile website.  From there, they expanded their site features from a single pane site to a multi-pane site depending on the width of your browser.  Looking at Athletepath on a small screen provides a different experience from a larger screen, but you don't have to download an app for your phone or tablet to use it.

Would he continue with mobile web as the long term mobile strategy for Athletepath?  Reed said they are going to build out native apps.  While a mobile website can address its user experience under limited cell phone coverage by using app cache or mobile storage, he felt the business had to go to native app to provide the next-level functionality.  At the same time, he said you need to have mobile web support for those people who do not want to download your app.

Based on the experience of this startup, it sounds like the advice for a Mobile Strategy is

• Build a mobile web experience whether you intend to release native apps or not
• If you are building native apps, build iOS first but don't forget Android.  Building and maintaining two native apps for any startup is very expensive.  Are your customers primarily repeat customers who access your service on mobile devices?

What say you?