Ask HN: How reliable is PhoneGap to develop Native Apps?
I am trying to port a desktop web app to native iphone app but wanted to have your opinion, how reliable PhoneGap is for developing full fledge native app.
I made the mistake of testing the app out on an iPhone 4 as I was developing it. Once it was finished, I tried it on my friend's iPhone 3G, and it was extremely slow and unresponsive to clicks.
I added all the possible optimizations that I could find people recommending on the web, but using the app on a 3G phone was still a horrible experience. Be sure to test your app on a 3G phone as you are developing it to test performance.
In retrospect, I should have taken the time to learn Obj-C and build a native app.
I did have to leave out a few features I would've liked due to it running too slow (same app rebuilt in Titanium is much faster) but overall it was a pleasant experience and the mailing list is very helpful & friendly.
The only things that pushed me to Titanium were the speed issues with the more complex stuff I was doing (perhaps my fault?) and the fact that Titanium enables you to use proper native widgets rather than simulating them with jqtouch or whatever - This was massive for me but no one in the real world has ever noticed :)
Out of the three apps out for iPhone and Android there have been no crashes and no complaints from users on bugs or unreliability. The apps make use of hardware (camera, gps and a few other things) as well as interfacing with a RoR backend for user systems, data syncing and upload pics taken in-app.
All in all, I've had no problems with it even after digging pretty deep into it and testing on Android 1.5-2.2 and old iOS through the latest versions.