[stefan_kendall3]

If you're commenting on the ease or difficulty of building iOS/Android native apps in this thread, and you aren't actively building an app for both or have built one before, you probably don't know what you're talking about.

The eco-system for building and deploying apps on both sides has gotten way better in the past couple years. There are pros and cons to both sides of development.

[stefan_kendall3]

iOS pros: Blazing fast simulator, ability to run tests through xctool or Xcode. Autolayout is extremely powerful, and you don't need to write state suspend/restore code for landscape rotation.

If you're writing a new app, you can probably exclusively target iOS7.

iOS cons: The device limit. This makes deploying apps to your users more difficult than it should be. Xcode is also an extremely weak IDE, but AppCode makes up for it.

Android pros: Faster iteration with releases, because no review process. You're also less likely to fight app review for dumb shit.

The nexus 5 is only ~$420 with shipping.

Intelli-J support.

Android cons: Emulator is for all purposes unusable. You will need to buy a device. Fragmentation of the OS across all devices.

[pjmlp]

> Android cons: Emulator is for all purposes unusable.

At least on Windows it is quite usable for OpenGL ES emulation, when using Intel's virtualization driver.