I'm starting to evaluation development platforms for the mobile version of SproutRobot, and... well, there's a lot out there.
Good things are: App Store/Android Marketplace/Mobile Web capability, single core library that can be reused in all three, feels like native, fast, works offline
I'm leaning towards a JavaScript framework because I need a mobile web version of the site anyway, and I might as well re-use that in the App Stores. Rhodes is tempting since the site is already written in Ruby, but I'm not sure how well it would integrate with my existing Rails server.
Sencha seems nice, I like that my use case is their bread and butter, and that I can use it free but that support is available for purchase if I need it.
jQuery Mobile is tempting because jQuery is a juggernaut, and it will surely be widely used. It seems like it's being very actively hacked on, although it's still quite new and is only Alpha release. But I've generally found jQuery to be quirky, and I don't want my apps to be quirky. Sencha gives me the feeling that they're making something "iOS-worthy", although that's just a gut feeling. I've heard performance is weak on Android.
ArsTechnica is using PhoneGap, and they have a mobile app for iOS and iPad that's in the App Store. They're nerds. I assume they've done their homework. But I wonder why their App isn't in the Android Marketplace if it's so portable?
Anyway, just a few thoughts as I poke around. Does anyone have any experience with these? I'm going to play with some of the apps built with them and see how they feel.
