Does language endorsement by different platforms (Android, iOS) hurt app development?

Posted by MSe on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by MSe
Published on 2011-05-05T15:42:41Z Indexed on 2012/03/30 17:41 UTC
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Developing iOS or OSX based applications typically requires knowledge of Objective C, since XCode is highly tailored to this language.

Android, on the other hand, has chosen Java as it's preferred language for app development.

Now, I know other programming languages can be used to develop applications on either platform, but lets be honest, it's a lot easier (and encouraged) to develop apps using these "native languages."

As a new app developer, it seems like it would be much easier if there was a common language and development environment for developing applications on all the major platforms. This thought is probably too idealistic for a programming discussion, and I wouldn't be surprised if the SE vultures flew in to close this topic. But, here's my question.

Do you think that language endorsement creates unreasonable barriers to entry for new programmers, or do you think it's beneficial in some way (if so, why) for these platforms to use completely different development environments and languages for app development?

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