PhoneGap is an open source development tool for building fast, easy mobile apps with JavaScript. If you’re a web developer who wants to build mobile applications in HTML and JavaScript while still taking advantage of the core features in the iPhone, Android and Blackberry SDKs, you need to check out PhoneGap.
Device integration should be simple so you can focus on the application you are building instead of authoring complex compatibility layers. PhoneGap aims to solve device integration by web enabling devices native functionality with open standards. The Apple iPhone, Google Android and various Blackberry models boast large screens and powerful device capability. Web enabling these devices in a consistant platform saves the developer from having to implement logic in three different software development paradigms.
The framework is open source and is based strictly on open standards. It’s still in its youth and is far from being a mature cross-platform framework. It is younger then Rhodes from Rhomobile and has less features, but it’s surely a project you want to keep an eye on and it may work great for your next smaller project.
[...] PhoneGap, Titanium and Rhodes are all based on web technologies and are aimed at web developers that want to leverage their current skills set to the mobile apps world. PhoneGap and Titanium use HTML, CSS, and Javascript. They both provide Javasript APIs to access the native features of the device (GPS/Geolocation, Vibration, Accelerometer, Sound…). Rhodes instead is based on Ruby and inspired by Rails. It provides a full server environment on the device and provides access to native features of the device through this environment. [...]