Scope of PhoneGap for Mobile App Development

PhoneGap is one emerging open source framework that is increasingly used for developing cross-platform for the development of mobile applications. In the modern time, mobile is leading the future of the internet, nearly everything done in the mobile. This has created a need for the prominence of the framework like PhoneGap for creative and rich applications. Looking at the current scenario, the scope for growth for PhoneGap looks very bright for the mobile app developers.

1. The History Behind PhoneGap

As a mobile development framework, PhoneGap was initially produced by Nitobi. However, Adobe Systems purchased Nitobi in 2011. This platform allows developers to build applications for networks using the JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3, instead of relying on the platform like iOS, Windows Phone, and Android. It also enables wrapping of HTML, CSS and JavaScript that depends on the device platform. The software that underlies PhoneGap is called Apache Cordova. Previously, the same tool called as Apache Callback.

2. What does PhoneGap Offer?

PhoneGap is surely the best tool which offers creating codebase that can be compatible with different devices. It need to be understood that the normal PhoneGap applications are not like any normal mobile websites. With PhoneGap, you can easily have built and develop different kind of applications. It is also not compulsory to use the specific mobile platform for creating connected mobile apps.

With the benefit of an application interface, the PhoneGap SDK can provide the specific set of features for the developers. Moreover, it supports for various hardware features such as Geo-location features, accelerometer and sound enhancements.

3. Growth of PhoneGap Framework

It is necessary for the PhoneGap SDK to install for the specific mobile platforms, which is essential for creating apps. For example, if an android app is necessary, this will mandate the Android SDK and the Android NDK to be installed. Therefore, PhoneGap can be taken as a cross-platform mobile network. This is because of the emergence of many major mobile systems in the industry.

4. How PhoneGap works?

PhoneGap SDK use of web technology. With this SDK, it is also possible to develop hybrid applications which can be build using native functionalities. This framework provides support for the cross-platform application development, thus it allows excellent re-usability of the code. Additionally, the PhoneGap plug-ins can also be used to integrate mobile native features. Based on the app requirement, an appropriate plug-in can easily have utilized using PhoneGap.

The result of that the, applications developed are hybrid, that means it's not entirely native nor purely web based. That mean it is hybrid by nature, as all the layout rendering is accomplish using the web views rather than the UI framework of the platform and because, at the same time, they are not only web apps, but also packages as apps for distribution and even native device APIs.

However, the use of web technology with web applications which make PhoneGap slower than other native applications which have an almost similar functionality. Still it is most sought and highly preferred SDK for developing mobile apps and in the coming time the trend of developing mobile apps using PhoneGap.