Can I write an app in javascript/HTML/CSS and sell it on the app store, google's play,and microsoft mobile app store?

Question

I am interested in web standards (js/HTML/CSS). I would like to create applications from them, for phones and tablets. And sell these applications on mobile stores and web stores (for appstores and google play).

Is it possible ? What would be the best way to do it ?

Solution 1

Yes, there is a PhoneGap platform that can be used for building mobile apps for iOS, Android, Symbian, Windows Phone.Apps developed with it are accepted in all the stores. It is quite popular, robust and has nice features.

Solution 2

As mentioned in one of the other answers, yes PhoneGap will do the trick if you decide to write your app in HTML/CSS/JavaScript. Now, if you want to have a pleasant user experience on both smartphone and tablet operating systems, I would also recommend looking into Twitter Bootstrap.

This CSS framework has built-in responsive web-design styles that will allow you to scale things down in a user-friendly manner from tablet to smartphone, as well as show/hide different parts of your HTML depending on whether your users are viewing the page on a tablet or smart phone.

Specifically, you can do things like the following:

<div class="visible-tablet">
    This will only be visible on tablets.
</div>
<div class="visible-phone">
    This will only be visible on smart-phones.
</div>

For a full listing of the responsive design support in Twitter Bootstrap, check out their section on responsive design.

You may also want to check out the Google Chrome Web Developer plugin to assist you in creating a responsive web experience. This plugin lets you (among other things) view how your page will look on multiple device resolutions and is an invaluable tool for debugging resolution-specific issues.

Solution 3

You can create Windows 8 Apps using Javascript and HTML 5 (apart from using Native languages). Windows 8 runs on Surface tablets and PC's.

Create your first Windows Store app using JavaScript (Windows)

There is a free ebook as well: free-ebook-programming-windows-8-apps-with-html-css-and-javascript

Solution 4

You can look at Zurb Foundation, which is a very active open source project for building responsive web apps for mobile devices. Some overall description of the features here.

Solution 5

There are lots of options around - PhoneGap seems to be the most popular and, since it's now part of Adobe, it will probably continue to be popular.

However, there is a more important issue to be considered here: iOS users expect an iOS app experience, Android users an Android one... You get the idea. Make sure it's the best choice for your customers. See this story about HTML5 at Facebook.

Also, and I know I might open a can of worms here, the performance will always be inferior to that of a native application.

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Comments

[marchaos]

Note that since Adobe released this to Apache, it's now called Apache Cordova.

[akhilless]

Oh, yes. Thank you for the info.

[apsillers]

@marchaos Specifically, PhoneGap is now functionally Adobe's fork of the open-soruce Cordova project.

[Jim O'Neil]

there are other similar options as well such as appMobi and Sencha, and for games GameSalad and Construct 2

[akhilless]

@JimO'Neil You are right. I have worked with Sensa Touch, for example., but prefer PhoneGap for a number of reasons that include feature support, stability, availability of books and tutorials on the web, etc. I think you should make your own answer based on your comment.

[Josiah]

However. Just a little bit of warning. Every app I have used that says "Powered by Adobe"... Let's just say I don't think so highly of Adobe anymore.

[Cedric]

I doubt that the tablet support is great. It works, but badly according to this post : community.phonegap.com/nitobi/topics/…

[David]

These days the easiest way to create Android apps based on HTML is to use DroidScript which can be found on Google Play (it did not exists at the time of this question). You can also build native (non-HTML) apps with pure JavaScript using the same tool.

[Ricardo]

I like that you didn't only answer the question by providing technology names, but went beyond and talked about the user experience.

[Ricardo]

Now for the sake of history, back to 2012, two Sencha's developers quickly wrote a POC app as a response to Facebook's statement about HTML5 – the Fastbook