Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was also very surprised at that line and I was wondering if I was the one who was out of touch or the Google team were. I haven't really looked into mobile development for a few years so it could very well be the case, but it stood out to me as unlikely considering the relative impopularity of Dart and the (to my estimation) very low hype profile of Flutter where developers hang out. But maybe they're right. I thin…
Tim was a director on Flutter until a few months ago and now works at Apple. That is, he has first hand knowledge of Flutter's numbers and now that he works for a competitor, no motivation to inflate Flutter's stats. Without getting into specifics (which I cannot share), Flutter is wildly successful in the market place and continues to grow YoY.
Being the ex director of a project means you will always have a reason to inflate the stats of that project, even if it is just for personal pride. I don't see how Hickson leaving Google means he doesn't still have part of his work life tied to the project regardless of employer.
> Without getting into specifics (which I cannot share), Flutter is wildly successful in the market place and continues to grow YoY.
That's cool, but this is just more of the same and more of what people seem surprised by. Numbers don't really matter unless they're visible and verifiable.