I am a C++ programmer interested in developing applications for Android as well as the iPhone platform. I have explored both these platforms by writing simple applications in Java (Android) and Objective-C (iphone). But the fact is that I am not comfortable with either of these languages, and it bothers me that I have to write 2 very different versions of the same application to support both platforms. (And then what do I do to run it on a Nokia phone?)
Is using web technologies (JavaScript/HTML/CSS) a viable solution for
writing apps which will run on multiple mobile platforms? I have heard
of Appcelerator and PhoneGap, but I am not sure how mature
these products are. I’d appreciate any feedback from folks who have
used web apps as a solution for developing cross platform mobile apps.
The two solutions that you mention will certainly produce something that runs and is cross-platform. However, the apps will never have the same great experience as native apps. They will never be able to fully use all the great native APIs.
For some apps this will work. Others will look and feel terrible. And you know how Apple users react to that 🙂