In the company I work for, I'm part of a team which will have to focus on mobile apps development (iOS and Android).

We are committed to realize our first commercial app, for both iOS and Android, and since the first meetings the team is discussing about which is the better development approach for it, if the native languages and development environments for the targeting platforms or HTML5 through PhoneGap.

We already know about the technical differences between the two worlds, but one aspect we are debating on is about the appearance.

Also please notice that the only networking features the app will have are related to HTTP requests.

In fact, the app we're talking about is required to have a quite customized UI, with particular button and listview appearance, for instance. To be more precise, we're not only talking about colors, but also circular buttons.

This kind of canvas lets some of us to think that HTML5/PhoneGap could be a faster and more flexible solution, due to the obvious design power you have on your hands, paired with development speed and targeting 2 apps with 1 code base.

Would someone suggest which approach (between all-native and HTML5/PhoneGap) could be preferable when a customized appearance is required?