Has the Native Vs. HTML5 Mobile Debate Changed?

itwbennett writes: The tools available to developers who need to build an application once and deploy everywhere have exploded. Frameworks like famo.us, Ionic, PhoneGap, Sencha Touch, Appcelerator, Xamarin, and others are reducing the grunt work and improving the overall quality of web based mobile applications dramatically. The benefits of a build once, deploy everywhere platform are pretty obvious, but are they enough to make up for the hits to user experience?

Comments

Re:Least common denominator

[holostarr]

Except most app developers want to target as many users across as many devices as possible so it makes more sense to use tools that target the most "common denominator". It makes very little financial sense to spend months on a native app that runs on handful of devices rather than most device using a tool like PhoneGap.

Re:Least common denominator

[Dutch Gun]

That's assuming you don't care about giving your users a good UI experience, because if you don't, your competitors just might. You can always financially justify cutting corners if you're not considering longer-term ramifications.

I'm not saying building native apps is the right decision for all apps, but it certainly is the right decision for *some*.