Forgive me if this question has already been answered but I couldn't quite find the answer I was looking for. What I wanted to know was, is there any significant advantage to using a native language when developing and deploying apps to a mobile environment?

The reason I ask is for a long while now I've been using Objective-C, Apple's native language for iOS, to build my apps. However I've been wondering whether or not there is any real benefit to doing this, over using a non-native language like JavaScript and then deploying it through a service like 'Phone Gap'?

I do stress 'significant' advantages as native languages are always more likely to have the upper hand when it comes to speed and access to the latest APIs. However in general I don't see using a non-native language or a service like 'Phone Gap' causing and major slow down to my apps or restricting my development. Additionally having the ability to deploy to multiple services is also very handy indeed.

This is why I put the question, are there any significant advantages to using a native language for mobile app development?