Home/ Questions/Q 3939194
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-20T00:16:18+00:00

With the recent updates to Sencha Touch, it’s looking more and more like a

  • 0

With the recent updates to Sencha Touch, it’s looking more and more like a native app for iPhone and even iPad. There are still many differences and the documentation is a little lacking at the moment.

My question is, given that I am already fully capable of creating native app in Objective C, should I switch to Sencha Touch and PhoneGap, or start integrating those tools?

What are the pros and cons?

EDIT:

Thanks for the insightful points. One of my partners wrote up their opinion over the weekend with some ideas that haven’t been mentioned here: Web vs Native: How Should You Write Your App?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Pros:

    • Easier to port to other platforms.
    • You can distribute outside the App Store if the app doesn’t require any native APIs.

    Cons:

    • Scrolling still doesn’t feel quite right with any of the web-based touch frameworks.
    • Slower (hardware-accelerated CSS animations help, but it’s not nearly as flexible as Core Animation).
    • Lacks full access to native hardware and OS-integration (PhoneGap provides some, but not everything), such as:
      • Push notifications.
      • Local notifications.
      • Background location updates (including significant location monitoring).
    • This is debatable, but in my opinion Cocoa Touch is easier to develop in than JavaScript + Sencha/XUI/etc.
    • 0