Native or cross-platform? Decide with the product in front of you
The right mobile approach follows from device needs, distribution, and who maintains the app next year.
List what the device has to do
Camera pipelines, background location, Bluetooth peripherals, and heavy offline use each push the decision. A content and forms application has very different needs from one that lives on device hardware.
Write those needs down before comparing frameworks. Most arguments about mobile technology are really unstated assumptions about what the app must do.
Count the people, not only the platforms
A shared codebase helps when one team owns both platforms and the experience is largely the same. Two native codebases can make sense when platform conventions matter or specialists already exist.
Consider who will fix a production bug in eighteen months. Maintenance capacity is usually a stronger constraint than launch speed.
Prototype the risky part first
Before committing, build the one interaction most likely to fail: the sync conflict, the hardware integration, the long list on an older phone. A few days of evidence is cheaper than a late rewrite.
