The PhoneGap cross platform framework helps build mobile apps for a range of environments including iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8. Developers who are experienced in building cross-platform apps for the mobile environment would surely have heard of the advantages offered by this solution.

PhoneGap is based on standard technologies such as HTML5, CSS and Javascript. Using these easy-to-learn inputs, developers can access the native features of the different environments using PhoneGap. It is also an open source solution, which means that it has the advantage of the wealth of experienced users contributing to it. It can be downloaded free of charge by developers and used to develop simple apps before deciding to opt for paid subscriptions of PhoneGap Build that offers more features.

Here are some of the ways that PhoneGap could, as mentioned on its website, “take the pain out of developing mobile apps”.

1. Uses existing skills and strengths: Due to the use of the standard languages and technologies, choosing PhoneGap would ensure that you do not need a whole lot of new training to execute your project. You could use the team members who are already strong in these areas thereby saving on a long period of training in additional mobile native environment skills. This would lead to a much faster kick-off for your project.

2. Provides updated SDKs: Developers would be able to work with the latest version of the native SDKs without keeping up individually with each platform. This helps them to focus on the functionality of the app that they would be developing, and also to save a lot of time that might otherwise be spent on following up the changes in the different platforms. With PhoneGap Build, you could submit your Javascript, CSS and HTML to the cloud and receive a ready app as well.

3. Allows development for multiple devices: As PhoneGap uses API bindings that are standards-compliant, it can work with multiple devices with ease. In most cases, the Javascript APIs are consistent across different platforms, and third party plugins might be used for features that are not available on all platforms.

4. Improves collaboration: Different members of the team can use their strengths in a collaborative manner to achieve the end result in a faster and seamless manner. The development environment provided by PhoneGap ensures that each developer can make optimal use of it, to come together for the final solution.

5. Enables better speed of deployment: The app that you are developing would be deployed to the user much faster, thanks to the time saved on developing using PhoneGap. The mobile app developer could make the best use of existing skills and readily available SDKs to achieve the end result in a reduced amount of time. The PhoneGap Emulator is another handy tool that is useful at the testing and debugging stage.

6. Allows easy sharing of apps: PhoneGap Build allows you to share the app as soon as it is ready, by sending a link to your friends and family. Recipients could download the app directly onto their mobile device without even accessing a laptop.

PhoneGap also provides a platform-centered workflow to allow for modifications at a lower level on a specific platform. This might prove useful to developers who need to make use of native components for building their application. It must be noted though, that this workflow would be more complicated than the cross-platform one, and would need a longer time for development cycles.

PhoneGap offers an Enterprise version that offers a host of features including

• One powerful platform for powering all your native, hybrid and mobile web apps
• Integration of cross-channel marketing using Adobe’s Marketing Cloud
• Mobile application management for viewing and testing your apps through all stages of the development cycle
• Professional support and training for all Enterprise-based operations.

You could verify the features that are supported by the latest release of PhoneGap for the different platforms here. The names PhoneGap and Cordova might be used in different places in the documentation, and both would refer to the PhoneGap solution. Cordova is the open source avatar of PhoneGap after being donated to the Apache Software Foundation, and these names could be used interchangeably.

PhoneGap could be a great option for amateur developers who are just entering the mobile development arena, as they could get a feel of developing on different platforms without spending too much time on understanding the APIs of each one. For experienced developers too, PhoneGap provides a lot of advantages that have already been detailed above.

Go over to their homepage to download and try it out right away!