Most widely used Mobile app development technology

In mobile development world, which is the best programming language/technology that we can use so that almost the same code that will run on all versions. I know it is little bit of a broad question and the most probable answer is Java. If I want to provide support for maximum number of devices(android, Iphone and other high end classes only), how many differ开发者_高级运维ent code bases I should have?

Thanks, GL

[...] that we can use so that almost the same code that will run on all versions [...]

All modern mobile smartphones / devices support HTML 5 / CSS / Javascript.

PhoneGap Augments these basic tools with the rest of the functionality you'd need.

Projects like jQuery Mobile are gaining a lot of traction as well.

I'd start there.

I wouldn't say it's "The Most Widely Used" technology... at least not yet... but I have a hard time believing anyone wouldn't agree things are going that direction.

UPDATE: For anyone who hasn't seen PhoneGap before - this (free) product will take your HTML / CSS / JS, and package them up inside a native application (which includes some shims to startup your app, and augment it with access to camera / files / gyro / etc from javascript). Your app works offline, and can be deployed through all of the available standard app stores.

If it's a web app, then you can develop using a highly adaptive layout, HTML 5, CSS, and the JS library of your choice, and you'll be fine.

If you are running native apps, you're pretty much stuck: Java for Android, Objective-C for iOS.

Regarding HTML5/CSS3, even if it is possible to reuse 90% of codebase (mostly non-rendering JS), there are significant differences when it comes to graphical presentations. Even, if you think that because Androids and Iphones use Webkit, so they should have roughly similar capabilities, they are quite apart.

Just to give a few examples: CSS3 3D transforms are mostly not supported on Android phones (Android 2.3), Audio tag implementation varies between Android and Iphone (Androids do not use buffering and streaming, while Iphones do).

And just do not get me started on how Androids lie about dimensions and aspect ratio. It is a bloody mess.

We have not tested latest Windows mobile phones, but until IE10 is shipped, support for HTML5 in windows world is abysmal.

To conclude, currently, there is no technology, "that we can use so that almost the same code that will run on all versions." HTML5 is 'almost' there, but will take perhaps a few years for Androids to catch up and Webkit to get the required speed and functionality to be able to compete head-on with native apps.