"At the time", running on the device was a requirement.

"Nowadays", one-the-device is harder but don't we always get enough connectivity to run web-based apps? Or at least apps through a browser? Whatever device, but our own apps from our own servers? New advantage that there is not much residing on the device which can then be lost, stolen or broken without issue.

> don't we always get enough connectivity to run web-based apps?

Lots of people don't, but also there are plenty of reasons people may want to keep everything on-device that has nothing to do with connectivity.