Both Android Studio and XCode will give you usable iOS and Android code from visual layouts.
Well, for some definitions of "usable" and "visual layouts"!
Our goal is to make a designer's tool that can output complete, store-ready projects for simple apps and for both platforms. That includes three things that neither Xcode nor Android Studio does:
1) Interface Builder and Android Studio's layout editor are not meant for designers. (Seriously, try giving them to a Photoshop-educated designer.)
2) Xcode and Android Studio let you define views, but neither of them produces the controller-level code from visual designs. (We do that and also produce model-level code for simple apps; there's a plugin API for more complex situations, or you can of course do that in handwritten code.)
3) Cross-platform. Anything you do in Xcode or Android Studio needs to be rebuilt from scratch on the other platform.
...the idioms, best practices, device capabilities, and user expectations are different on each platform.
I feel that this doesn't hold true anymore. iOS 7+ and Android 4+ have largely converged on a flat style where a 3rd party app can define its own style that is easily compatible with both.
With Windows 10, even Microsoft is coming into this "common mobile" UI fold. They're giving up on the idiosyncratic (and interesting) Windows Phone concepts, and instead adopting a generic look that makes it easier to port Android/iOS apps directly. They're also offering new APIs and runtimes for that.
(Edit: To clarify, you can customize layouts separately for iOS and Android in Neonto Studio.)
That's missing the point of what makes a good app. It like you say about Cordova apps: the last 20% takes 80% of the time.
Notifications are completely different on iOS and Android. Sharing data between apps is completely different. Wearables are different. Communicating with a server is different. Accessing contacts is different, as is accessing the camera. Sensors are different, and often differ between Android models.
Most of the big mobile success stories we've seen in the past 5 years have come from people utilizing the unique features of the phone, not treating it like a 5-inch dumb terminal.
I'm sorry, after reading you say "they are now the same because they are flat", I sincerely hope you fail. You are clearly not a designer, yet attempt to market a development tool as such.
It's just an observation: for real-world apps, iOS and Android visual styles and conventions are growing closer rather than diverging (and Windows 10 is trying hard to fit into the same mold).
Your observation about iOS vs Android is very narrow-minded, either deliberate or inadvertent. There are profound design language differences between iOS and Android material design. Claiming "flatness" is very shortsighted indeed.
A word on Windows 10, mobile or otherwise. It is indeed a mess, with almost no coherent design language, something that Phone 7, Phone 8 and Windows 8 actually had, for better or worse. Windows 10 throws many of the good design choices for a faux Android look, and a very bad one at that due to complete lack of consistency. Android also lacks consistency throughout, but at least a somewhat coherent design language exists now.
I do not wish to argue here. Do not take my wishes personally. As someone who wishes to only see good technology succeed, and I do not see this as good technology. I do not wish personal failure to anyone individual, and wish you personally all the best.
Well, for some definitions of "usable" and "visual layouts"!
Our goal is to make a designer's tool that can output complete, store-ready projects for simple apps and for both platforms. That includes three things that neither Xcode nor Android Studio does:
1) Interface Builder and Android Studio's layout editor are not meant for designers. (Seriously, try giving them to a Photoshop-educated designer.)
2) Xcode and Android Studio let you define views, but neither of them produces the controller-level code from visual designs. (We do that and also produce model-level code for simple apps; there's a plugin API for more complex situations, or you can of course do that in handwritten code.)
3) Cross-platform. Anything you do in Xcode or Android Studio needs to be rebuilt from scratch on the other platform.
...the idioms, best practices, device capabilities, and user expectations are different on each platform.
I feel that this doesn't hold true anymore. iOS 7+ and Android 4+ have largely converged on a flat style where a 3rd party app can define its own style that is easily compatible with both.
With Windows 10, even Microsoft is coming into this "common mobile" UI fold. They're giving up on the idiosyncratic (and interesting) Windows Phone concepts, and instead adopting a generic look that makes it easier to port Android/iOS apps directly. They're also offering new APIs and runtimes for that.
(Edit: To clarify, you can customize layouts separately for iOS and Android in Neonto Studio.)