Question

We are about to build a new company Android app and would like to code using HTML5, CSS3 and Jquery and then compile with PhoneGap. We want to do it this was as we already have strong skill-sets available in these areas.

I wonder if anyone could advise whether this would cause any issues in getting our App listed in the Android Marketplace. Or whether there are any other serious downsides to our approach.

Thanks for your help.

Paul

Answer 1

PhoneGap, as I understand it, will not compile the HTML5 code, it will put it inside a nice box.

This is practical because it allows you to use your existing skillset, but it has the inconvenient your still working with a web application, even though you slightly increase your abilities by accessing the native API through PhoneGap.

You will not have issues with listing on the Marketplace, several applications do that already and have no issue. However, it really depends on your final objective. If your application is basically a form tool, your computational needs are low, and this is the way to go. If it’s a marketing tool, it probably is too. However, if you need to do serious math or animation, access some hardware features (like creating overlays on video in realtime with GPS information and accelerometer management), you will need to use the Java API (and maybe even the NDK) to make it manageable and usable.

You will be able to do amazing things with HTML5 of course, but it’s really a matter of computing power, interpreted versus compiled-and-optimized. So, once again: it depends on the type of application you plan to build.