@yongfook
We take a different approach than PhoneGap for iPhone. Instead of bundling your HTML/Javascript/CSS as files in your app, we compile them into your executable natively. While we can't say with absolute certainty that our approach will merit 100% acceptance rate (even regular native iPhone apps don't get that), we think it's a big improvement.

1) There are several features that make our product unique. First, we provide an environment that makes building apps very, very easy. We have a client side environment called Titanium Developer that will speed you through developing, testing, and packaging your app. Second, we've added support for native functionality throughout the application. You are not limited to a single web view, but rather an unlimited number of web views, each containing either native or web-rendered functionality. For example, you can have native access to a database inside a native table view in the main content window. This bypasses the webkit engine and goes straight to the native device support (eg: better performance). You can see many more examples on our latest webcast here: https://appcelerator.webex.com/appcelerator/ldr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=37727292&rKey=05e8b8e1f2a5e239

2) In terms of getting through the review process, there are several things we do to ensure compliance. The most significant is that we compile down every app into a discrete binary. In other words, you can't ship a Titanium-built app with loose Javascript/HTML that could be updated post-submittal. Second, and this really comes from putting Titanium through its paces, every part of your app accesses native iPhone (or Android) functionality. Transitions, UI, device APIs, main content areas, etc - your apps look native throughout. So, at the end of the day, your apps are compiled like native apps AND they look and perform native throughout.

3) In terms of performance, for the majority of use cases, we are seeing very solid performance. We don't see 3D games, for instance, in our app portfolio, but we certainly see a lot of applications that are connected to the web and leveraging native device functionality. This is due in part to the Javascript/HTML/CSS tools used to make these apps, but also the web background of developers building apps on Titanium for mobile and desktop platforms.

One final factoid - of the over >1,000 apps started on Titanium over the past few weeks, we're seeing near equal adoption of iPhone and Android. The reason is simple: when the development walls are brought down, there's no reason not to develop on both platforms. And, btw, we have full support for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms too. So, you can build both a mobile app and a netbook app on the same platform.

Interested in learning more? Sign up for our beta at www.appcelerator.com

Cheers,

Scott Schwarzhoff
VP, Marketing
Appcelerator
sschwarzhoff at appcelerator.com

Developers using Phonegap were getting rejected from the App store by Apple, as Apple didn't like that they were essentially bypassing the Apple SDK to build apps.

That's a big concern for someone delving into a new dev environment like this - you don't want to spend time learning something that becomes redundant as soon as an Apple QA rep figures out you didn't use the Apple SDK.

For graphical applications, of course, C and Objective C is the only way to go -- you need to squeeze every last bit you can out of the phone, and machine-generated code won't cut it.

It is a magnitude slower, and magnitude more inefficient in terms of battery impact although that is less relevant for something you may fire up for just a couple of minutes.

That of course may also explain the difference in the nature of the apps being built - you're not going to be writing Worms or Super Monkey Ball in web technologies any time soon.