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iOS first – a flawed strategy that startups have used for years

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Re: iOS first – a flawed strategy that startups have used for years

#31

Post by [deleted] »

wesselkooyman wrote: post #28
VSpike wrote: post #7

I live in a tech bubble, but I see a pretty even distribution of iOS vs. Android devices. Is this a US versus Europe thing, perhaps? Android phones and tablets seem pretty popular among UK geeks - at least as much as iOS. In fact, I frequently encounter among geeks a sort of snobbery against iOS - "it's eye candy for non-techy consumers". That view is not universal - like I say, it's a mixed picture - but it is signi…

Maybe the Apple worshipping is over its peak! Until recently i lived in Paris, wherever you go in the tech/startup scene, it's an Apple-only world. I would literally sit there surrounded by 20-30 MacBook Air's and be the only non-Apple laptop! Made for lots of weird stares.

[deleted]

Re: iOS first – a flawed strategy that startups have used for years

#32

Post by fpgeek »

onion2k wrote: post #2

One of the most important things you learn when you're launching a startup is that the product has to match the market, and the market is never "everyone". You don't have that sort of marketing reach on a startup budget. Startups can get the word out through social media (people the founders know), people the founders and investors network with, through startup and early-adopter technology news (TC, HN, BetaList, Pro…

You're making tons of unnecessarily limiting assumptions about the segment a startup might be targeting.

There are plenty of segments worth targeting beyond people who pay attention to startup and early-adopter news. They might require more thought and creativity to reach, but there's also less competition if you do reach them. And plenty of those segments (e.g. most Asian countries) are very "Android heavy".

You shouldn't separate what to develop from the problem you're solving and the people that care about it. Imagine, for instance, your app helped people sending and receiving international remittances. You'd be dead-in-the-water without an Android app. The sending side might be more complicated (I'm not sure), but the receiving side is overwhelmingly Android, if they have a smartphone at all.

Re: iOS first – a flawed strategy that startups have used for years

#33

Post by coldtea »

>and it was the phone of ‘poor people’ – people that didn’t spend money on their phones.

I don't see that change anytime soon. Simply for the fact that tons of Android phones are sold at the cheapest tier, where people used to buy feature phones, whereas there's no iPhone catering to the lower end of the market (not even 5C).

Plus, his diagrams shows Android below iOS in payments to developers but "catching up". What it doesn't say is that Android has larger market share, so that it's below on payments (and thus app sales) is problematic.

Re: iOS first – a flawed strategy that startups have used for years

#34

Post by coldtea »

He doesn't seem to understand the notion of opportunity cost.

That it's sometimes wise to leave money of the table, if you have to spread yourself think and work twice as hard for diminishing returns.

iOS first is perfectly fine for launch. Tons of highly succesful apps did just that.

You don't have to mess with the fragmentation (even though the latest party line is that "it's not that big a deal"), and you get access to the more lucrative demographic in general (sure, there are billionaires using Android too -- but in average, iOS users pay more for their phones, and get higher wages).

Re: iOS first – a flawed strategy that startups have used for years

#35

Post by coldtea »

wesselkooyman wrote: post #24
onion2k wrote: post #2

One of the most important things you learn when you're launching a startup is that the product has to match the market, and the market is never "everyone". You don't have that sort of marketing reach on a startup budget. Startups can get the word out through social media (people the founders know), people the founders and investors network with, through startup and early-adopter technology news (TC, HN, BetaList, Pro…

This is exactly my point when i talk about the "tech bubble". iOS users keep telling themselves the numbers are somehow lying, and that their market is the early adopters, and that that market is decent sized. I don't think we appreciate how small that world is. But since it includes 90% of our direct peers, it feels bigger than it is.

>This is exactly my point when i talk about the "tech bubble". iOS users keep telling themselves the numbers are somehow lying, and that their market is the early adopters, and that that market is decent sized. I don't think we appreciate how small that world is.

Well, the fact that Android has a larger market share but is still playing catchup to money paid to developers, speaks volumes.

Re: iOS first – a flawed strategy that startups have used for years

#36

Post by err4nt »

wesselkooyman wrote: post #24
onion2k wrote: post #2

One of the most important things you learn when you're launching a startup is that the product has to match the market, and the market is never "everyone". You don't have that sort of marketing reach on a startup budget. Startups can get the word out through social media (people the founders know), people the founders and investors network with, through startup and early-adopter technology news (TC, HN, BetaList, Pro…

This is exactly my point when i talk about the "tech bubble". iOS users keep telling themselves the numbers are somehow lying, and that their market is the early adopters, and that that market is decent sized. I don't think we appreciate how small that world is. But since it includes 90% of our direct peers, it feels bigger than it is.

I live in Canada and literally everybody in my life, except for one friend who is a huge Android fanboy, uses iOS. I don't have a phone, but I can still iMessage everybody else I know from my tablet except for one person.

Now I love the idea of android, I love the technology and I use Linux daily on web servers so I get the customizeability and the appeal, but let's face it - if I write an iOS app I can send that to nearly everybody I know. If I write an android app only one person I know could install it.

Re: iOS first – a flawed strategy that startups have used for years

#37

Post by simonh »

danmaz74 wrote: post #14
simonh wrote: post #12

So in an article mainly criticizing the historical decision of developers to release on iOS first, this guy publishes a graph showing that historically considerably more than double the money has been spent on iOS apps than Android apps. Then he calls developer's tendency to release on iOS first over that period irrational. OK

He isn't criticizing the "historical decision". He is criticizing decisions being taken now.

Perhaps you should read the title of the article, and reconsider your comment in that light.

Re: iOS first – a flawed strategy that startups have used for years

#38

Post by Oletros »

wmt wrote: post #18

I'd really want this article to be true and that developing for Android first would be an equally good strategy. However, the claim that IOS-first is irrational is just dishonest. While Android total money spent in apps is gaining, iOS has been a solid leader for its entire history. Every decision to go for Apple first has been a correct one. This is perfectly summed up by the first comment on the page: "All I know i…

> This is perfectly summed up by the first comment on the page:

That comment, without looking the app, don't say anything

Re: iOS first – a flawed strategy that startups have used for years

#39

Post by dkersten »

simonh wrote: post #37
danmaz74 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He isn't criticizing the "historical decision". He is criticizing decisions being taken now.

Perhaps you should read the title of the article, and reconsider your comment in that light.

From the article:

We’re so focused on revenue from the app store, that we ignore some facts: lots of apps support other platforms, and generate revenue on other ways. My phone has a great SalesForce CRM app on it – it’s free. But of course our company pays for the CRM! Apps also often drive revenue on other platforms. In Android apps, you can freely send users to another platform to do a transaction – how much revenue is generated that way? iOS blocks this, by the way, and insists on a 30% cut.

Other apps are ad based, and that revenue can come from any one of hundreds of ad exchanges. Again, none of that revenue is part of this graph.

Re: iOS first – a flawed strategy that startups have used for years

#40

Post by simonh »

dkersten wrote: post #39
simonh wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you should read the title of the article, and reconsider your comment in that light.

From the article: We’re so focused on revenue from the app store, that we ignore some facts: lots of apps support other platforms, and generate revenue on other ways. My phone has a great SalesForce CRM app on it – it’s free. But of course our company pays for the CRM! Apps also often drive revenue on other platforms. In Android apps, you can freely send users to another platform to do a transaction – how much revenu…

If iOS didn't have apps that generate revenue in those ways you might have a point, but it does.

The question you need to answer is why you think the platform with the lower user engagement stats, lower online purchasing metrics and lower app revenue stats is likely to benefit from them more than the leader in all those other metrics.

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