Google is the godfather of PWA, which should come as no surprise. By blending web and mobile-like UX, PWA can break down the wall in the garden of data guarded by Google and Apple. While Google can afford that (as its data storage also contains pretty much all of the World Wide Web), Apple is not in such a comfortable position here.  

However, the idea of putting mobile user experiences at the centre of interest was put forward by Steve Jobs over a decade ago. Apple’s CEO presented the concept during the iPhone introduction in 2007 because, at the beginning of the mobile revolution, it seemed apparent that external apps would be a way to leverage the popularity of the nascent Apple device. Jobs wanted to encourage developers to build them.

That was, however, a short-lived idea. In July 2008, Apple placed the concept of "universal apps" on ice. The company presented the App Store instead, and mobile apps started to dominate the internet.

The PWA-specific approach had to wait for its moment a decade later. In 2015, Frances Berriman and Alex Russell, the authors of the term PWA, wrote in the foreword of “Progressive Web Apps”, a book by Jason Grigsby: