(I won't reply on your remarks regarding Mozilla and UX, as JohnTHaller has done this quite nicely.) It is true that power users can install apps without going

(I won't reply on your remarks regarding Mozilla and UX, as JohnTHaller has done this quite nicely.) It is true that power users can install apps without going through the Android Play Store. Regular users (i.e. your customers, if you are a developer)? I wouldn't be so sure. That's your first clue that Android is not the pinnacle of mobile OS. For most users, Android is effectively a silo. Worse than that, it is a silo in which all your otherwise private data belongs to a single company. As a user, this is a pretty big clue to me that Android is not the platform I want for me, or for my children. As for developing apps in languages other than JavaScript, well, here are "a few" other languages that you can use: https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/wiki/List-of-languages-that-compile-to-JS https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/wiki/List-of-lang... . This includes C, C++, C#, Python, Java, etc. Heck, even I have developed a language in that list :) Caveat: I am a Mozillian (and I'll stop writing this at the bottom of my messages, I grow tired of it).