Hi there, great write-up and thanks for coming to DrupalCamp Austin!

Just for the record, when I said "forget mobile, go responsive," I was talking about websites that are known to have very diverse audiences. So the various talks presented at DCATX were not in disagreement IMO.

Building a dedicated mobile app is a great idea in many situations. There were other great talks at DCATX about dedicated apps, and for good reason: there are times when a dedicated app is the only option. For example, the web API for cameras is not finalized just yet, so you have to go with a more native solution, even if it's PhoneGap or similar. In fact, Jeff Linwood's presentation covered this exact use case, which is not yet possible in plain mobile browsers.

However, I feel responsive websites are far more effective for general-purpose sites, allowing you to bundle the functionality together and serve multiple devices all at once.