With Salesforce Mobile SDK, you can leverage the power of Force.com to create standalone mobile apps that access and manipulate Salesforce data.
Salesforce Mobile SDK links into Force.com to provide tools to aid in the creation of standalone mobile apps that access and manipulate Salesforce data.
Using Force.com, developers can define application components, such as custom objects and fields, workflow rules, Visualforce pages, and Apex classes and triggers, using point-and-click tools of the Web interface, and assembling the components into killer apps.
The Mobile SDK integrates with the Force.com cloud architecture by providing:
- SmartSync Data Framework for accessing Salesforce data through JavaScript
- Secure offline storage
- Data syncing for hybrid apps
- Implementation of Force.com Connected App policy that works out of the box
- OAuth credentials management, including persistence and refresh capabilities
- Wrappers for Salesforce REST APIs
- Libraries for building native iOS and Android applications
- Containers for building hybrid applications
Source: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.mobile_sdk.meta/mobile_sdk/intro.htm