Confused

If you search for PhoneGap we've had this discussion several times. I guess it's time for me to write a blog post about it. The bottom line is that you can certainly build great applications using web technologies. PhoneGap is a native wrapper around your web app and gives you access to the device. You can use jQuery Mobile for the UI and wrap it using PhoneGap which provides access to several device capabilities.

It all depends on the kind of app you are writing. If you are creating a complex game then of course I recommend you build it natively. If you are writing a simple To Do app then PhoneGap serves really well. I would say 80% of apps can be written using web technologies and PhoneGap. Some features you can't write using PhoneGap would be: OpenGL Games that use the GPU, Turn-By-Turn directions, iCloud, Game Center, Subscriptions, local notifications, background services. The iOS SDK provides a lot of system services and features that are sometimes not available using PhoneGap.

PS. We are releasing a workshop on jQuery Mobile next week. If more people would like me to take the jQuery Mobile app and wrap it using PhoneGap then I might do another workshop on PhoneGap.