If you prefer C# over Java, well, it is better. Learning both a new platform and a new language (especially Objective-C in the days Swift didn't exists) is a da

If you prefer C# over Java, well, it is better. Learning both a new platform and a new language (especially Objective-C in the days Swift didn't exists) is a daunting task and Xamarin can ease the pain here. Also it is great to be able to maintain a single code base for the data model layer (including persistance), network access etc. And you can also use platform specific native APIs in C#. The not-so-smooth part is the UI. You have two choices here: using the Xamarin Forms library which is a toolkit that maps high level UI component to natives ones, with the drawbacks of less customization. Or to use the native UI tool (XCode designer for iOS, Visual Studio for WP; Xamarin Studio comes with a designer for Android) to create it. But in this case, you can't use data binding, which makes WP(F) developper very sad :( As a hobbyist mobile student developer, I wouldn't have enough time to develop a multiplatform mobile apps without it. (note: they offer free Indie plan to student who ask for it).