Why we’ve decided to stop producing TNW Magazine for Android
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Re: Why we’ve decided to stop producing TNW Magazine for Android
#2Suggestion: stop making it for iOs as well and make the site work properly in any browser.
Re: Why we’ve decided to stop producing TNW Magazine for Android
#3Suggestion: stop making it for iOs as well and make the site work properly in any browser.
I really don't understand why news sites bother with dedicated apps. It doesn't sound like anything they're doing couldn't be handled by web design these days, music, video, images, layout etc.
Sidenote: From the writeup it sounds like TNW is struggling more with their tooling than with Android. Anybody know of better alternatives?
Re: Why we’ve decided to stop producing TNW Magazine for Android
#4[deleted]
Re: Why we’ve decided to stop producing TNW Magazine for Android
#5So, you stopped releasing a version for android because the software you're using can't deal with the formatting properly (even though it says it can) and the material you're using is locked to one provider... The majority of the blame definitely lies somewhere other than on android's doorstep.
Re: Why we’ve decided to stop producing TNW Magazine for Android
#6Suggestion: stop making it for iOs as well and make the site work properly in any browser.
Exactly. When your content is text and photos, there is no reason you can't make it web only, optimized for various resolutions.
Re: Why we’ve decided to stop producing TNW Magazine for Android
#7So, you stopped releasing a version for android because the software you're using can't deal with the formatting properly (even though it says it can) and the material you're using is locked to one provider... The majority of the blame definitely lies somewhere other than on android's doorstep.
They did put the effort in to overcome those issues, only to discover that for every 80 iOS users they had 1 Android user, so they concluded that continuing to do the work wasn't justified because there was a lack of demand. If they'd had comparable demand from Android users, they'd have continued to invest.
Re: Why we’ve decided to stop producing TNW Magazine for Android
#8Suggestion: stop making it for iOs as well and make the site work properly in any browser.
They offer an optional subscription through in-app purchase on iOS.
I imagine they get a lot more support that way than they would if they put it on the web with a 'donate' button, so basically they are putting their effort into the audience who is willing to pay them.
Why would they just give it away rather than going to the market that values their product?
Re: Why we’ve decided to stop producing TNW Magazine for Android
#9I suppose this is a call to action for a better magazine publishing tool. It is an interesting challenge, and one illustrates the 'ecosystem' effect. They're publishing software supplier (Mag+) is better at supporting iOS than Android, so supporting Android becomes too onerous.
On the one hand that is sad for TNW, after all more subscribers is always good, but it is really bad for Mag+ since it points out a gaping hole in their strategy. By not investing in Android they leave the larger market share of Android devices open to another publishing company, and when that company uses the strength of their Android base to enter the iOS market, their customers (like TNW) will switch because they are all about the subscriber numbers.
Lets see how Mag+ responds ...
Re: Why we’ve decided to stop producing TNW Magazine for Android
#10So, you stopped releasing a version for android because the software you're using can't deal with the formatting properly (even though it says it can) and the material you're using is locked to one provider... The majority of the blame definitely lies somewhere other than on android's doorstep.
They did put the effort in to overcome those issues, only to discover that for every 80 iOS users they had 1 Android user, so they concluded that continuing to do the work wasn't justified because there was a lack of demand. If they'd had comparable demand from Android users, they'd have continued to invest.
But if they had a crappy product for Android is it any wonder that their uptake ratio was so out of kilter? If they had platform feature parity at launch your argument would be valid but they didn't so you cannot draw the conclusion you have drawn.