Hybrid App Development

Native app development is time consuming since code must be written for each specific platform. The cost effective and time saving way is to go for hybrid app development. This also reduces time to market and makes an app live on several platforms at the same time. Cross platform development solution that utilizes the power of Xamarin and PhoneGap is the best way. Titanium is another platform commonly used for cross platform development but Xamarin and PhoneGap are better.

PhoneGap

Open Source PhoneGap apps are actually HTML based and use HTML5, CSS and JavaScript which simplifies hybrid app development and speeds up time to market. There are advantages such as native APIS to port to various environments, reusable code and webpages wrapped as mobile apps with support for iOS, android, blackberry, firefox and Windows platforms. PhoneGap is suited for simple apps with simple Uis.

Xamarin

Xamarin is based on C# under a .NET layer that uses native APIs and extensive library. Development of hybrid apps using Xamarin is easy since one can convert a UI for various platforms. Xamarin has other features such as testing of apps, code reuse, MVC and MVMM patterns and support for Blackberry, Windows and Android as well as iOS. Xamarin also supports wearable devices.
Whether to use xamarin or phonegap depends on the hybrid development team that studies the requirements of a client and the functionality that the app must have and then decides on use of the specific hybrid app development platform.