Hi, am a php developer and willing to learn something about mobile development, Pls, i need advice on how to get started and which language is best for cross platform apps.

thank you

Mobile Apps development fascinates me and here's my little advice: since you're a PHP programmer, i would'nt know if you've done a little bit of OOP in PHP, if yes, then hurdle one passed or else you need a good understanding of OOP(except in some cases) if you want to delve into this unpopular(at least in Nigeria) but lucrative territory. Starting with the language of choice so as to avoid cross compatibility issues, JAVA; yes JAVA's J2ME MIDP platform runs on most devices(Nokia with it's Symbian OS, an array of 3rd party phone makers running the Android OS - like Samsung, LG, HTC & many more and finally Research in Motions Blackberry), except in the case of the iPhone's iOS operating system. I hated Java during my uni days, maybe becos everybody's singing about it likewise PHP, and funny enough it's not that i don't have experience with these, at least i have built drupal themes with PHP, i just don't go with the crowd and so i do Perl and Nokia's Symbian OS has made me learn Python. Back to what am driving at, you don't need to fully learn J2ME for you to program these devices, my backgroup of OOP C++ helped me and so the learning curve was not much. These devices run propietary Operating Systems and so they all have API's exposed for developers. Blackberry and Android OS use Java like syntax that closely looks like Java's J2ME and Nokia's devices are Java Enabled, and so you see Java covers a lot of ground. Since Java looks a lot like C++, getting to know OOP C++ will help you if you don't want to bother yourself at all learning Java, because you'll still meet a new syntax of Java when you work with the SDK's provided by these devices. The problem is iOS that runs on Apple's iPhone line of products, this OS publishes the Cocoa API that uses objective-C, you can Google that up for more information. But the Nokia Symbian OS, Series 60 to be exact has a Python port called pyS60, that allows native development of apps to be done using the Python Programming Language. It actually allows the python interpreter to be installed on devices running the Series 60 version of it's OS. The native development language used in programming Nokia devices running the symbian OS is C++, but you can also use OpenC. Maybe you Google most of these things and see what you can find. Now after you're through with language issues, you now download their SDK's from each of these devices developer sites. You'll need the eclipse IDE, blackberry has a Blackberry Plugin IDE suitable for it's platform only, Nokia uses the Carbide C++ or Qt IDE. These files are large, and takes time installing especially Android's SDK, and so you need a fast internet connection.

Thank you for your response, I am an OOP person so i believe it wouldnt be something so difficult to start, And going by your advice J2ME would be my best bet.

thanks both of you, unlike the original poster i have no programing knowledge and would love to build cross platform applications like the original poster. Could either of you please suggest what i might need to learn to achieve this?
Thanks in anticipation of your responses...