True, but Microsoft is such an enterprise company that it fits their customer base really well (e.g. "I don't care if it's pretty, I just need an inexpensive-to-build app for my 3,000 workers that runs on either platform").
I think most people don't understand Xamarin. Up until pretty recently Xamarin had no cross platform UI components. That is although all logic was shared, views had to be written separately for the different platforms - just like React Native.
With Xamarin Forms this has changed - you can add a Xamarin Form component and this will work adapt itself across the different platforms. The key word there is adapt - it is not like an HTML page, a Xamarin form input will look different on Android and iOS by default.
So I think your point, while valid, does not apply in any way to Xamarin!
> So I think your point, while valid, does not apply in any way to Xamarin!
I'm afraid GPs point is still valid - UX (the experience) is more than just native/native-looking widgets, but how the app conforms to platform conventions. For example, iOS apps typically include(d?) a back button at the top left corner; even if the button is rendered faithfully as an Android widget - that app will feel alien on Android (it was also an easy way to spot lazy iOS 'ports'). I think edge-swipes are another iOS convention for navigating back/forward, which would be foreign on Android, so I fully agree with GPs statement: Each platform requires UI work to make it really fit the platform in question
That was his point though. You build the UI in Xamarin.Forms and on the iPhone there is a back button in the top left corner, on Android there isn't. Automatically rearranging and conforming to the platform guidelines.
So I think your point, while valid, does not apply in any way to Xamarin!
I'll believe it when I see it. Cross-platform UI libraries like Qt, Gtk, SWT, etc, just never end up choosing quite the right widgets or having exactly the right look-and-feel as natively-designed apps.
If cross-platform is a bigger requirement than producing the best-possible UX, then perhaps Xamarin could deliver. I see this being a big deal with enterprise software. But that's almost never the case for most consumer-facing software; you're always much, much better off building your presentation code in a native UI toolkit.
Which users? Admins don't care about UX, they care about ticking checkboxes to appease management. End users are people like you and me, they want quality from their software. They may be forced to work with less then stellar software, but that does not mean they accept it.
Each platform requires UI work to make it really fit the platform in question.