Apple acquires Buddybuild • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple acquires Buddybuild

#111

Post by cdolan » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 4:33 AM UTC

jagger27 wrote: post #78

pm90 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is notoriously bureaucratic. So its not surprising that innovation is stifled. I really hate this duality b/w innovation and stability... perhaps if more startups were focused on longer term survivability, it would be better for society overall?

I wonder if Apple's satellite operations (like the Siri team in Ottawa, Canada, for example) might have some autonomy and self direction simply due to distance from the mothership. As for a shift in startup culture, what is more tempting than 5 to 10 years of hard work into billion dollar exits? Local governments could start offering tax incentives that build over time—or more aggressively, have steep disincentives o…

Steep incentives for corporate takeovers is a bad idea IMO - that lack of option in a liquidity event would make less companies receive funding. It would be even more risky to our venture capital behind a new idea.

Re: Apple acquires Buddybuild

#112

Post by s73ver_ » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 5:09 AM UTC

pm90 wrote: post #31

st3fan wrote: post #29

I'm happy for the founders, this is probably a good and profitable exit for them. But as a customer I am really sad and disappointed. Apple has a very bad reputation when it comes to taking over products like this. TestFlight is the prime example. TestFlight basically disappeared for a year until coming back as a more limited and slower Apple branded service. And by slow I mostly mean, it takes 6 months for bugs to b…

Apple is notoriously bureaucratic. So its not surprising that innovation is stifled. I really hate this duality b/w innovation and stability... perhaps if more startups were focused on longer term survivability, it would be better for society overall?

It might be, but Apple, Google, FB, MSFT, etc, still have the ability to roll one of those giant mining dump trucks full of money up to the founder's doors, so you're always going to have the possibility that they just get bought out.

Re: Apple acquires Buddybuild

#113

Post by s73ver_ » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 5:11 AM UTC

thisisit wrote: post #108

st3fan wrote: post #29

I'm happy for the founders, this is probably a good and profitable exit for them. But as a customer I am really sad and disappointed. Apple has a very bad reputation when it comes to taking over products like this. TestFlight is the prime example. TestFlight basically disappeared for a year until coming back as a more limited and slower Apple branded service. And by slow I mostly mean, it takes 6 months for bugs to b…

Sometimes I wonder - isn't that an opportunity in disguise for another shop to fill the gaps? Or I am missing something?

There have been other shops that fill those games. Buddybuild was one of them.

Re: Apple acquires Buddybuild

#114

Post by rubiquity » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 5:21 AM UTC

herodotus wrote: post #92

justonepost wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, maybe they are opening up a shop in Vancouver.

Apple already has a shop in Vancouver

Seems like a huge waste of money to put software engineers in an Apple store.

Re: Apple acquires Buddybuild

#115

Post by jjeaff » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 5:24 AM UTC

sebleon wrote: post #48

Pharaoh2 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may have been historically true, but our internal data shows us that starting early 2017, people in tier 1 countries were equally likely to pay and have comparable LTV on both platforms. And if you also going to launch in EU/Australia/Canada, you will have a nearly 50-50 split of ios and android users on a platform neutral app. So the classical logic of implementing on iOS first doesn't really apply anymore. Now…

The logic still applies. 1. Start with platform you're most comfortable with. 2. Iterate on product until you have a winning formula 3. Replicate on 2nd platform to double revenues Building is a lot easier than identifying what to build, better to speedily experiment on one platform.

In my opinion the new logic is build in React Native (unless your app fits in the 10% of use cases that won't work well with RN), then deploy to both at once. We have had excellent results.

Re: Apple acquires Buddybuild

#116

Post by s73ver_ » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 5:40 AM UTC

trevor-e wrote: post #98

Apple needs to drastically simplify how Xcode builds work instead of acquiring more companies. For example, provisioning profiles solve a problem that doesn't exist while creating a dozen more. Xcode is still limited to macOS. On the deployment side iTunes Connect is possibly the worst website that I've used. It's incredibly slow (both the front and backend) and has limited options for phased releases.

"Xcode is still limited to macOS."

Yes, their IDE was made for their platform. I'm not seeing why this is a problem.

Re: Apple acquires Buddybuild

#117

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 5:40 AM UTC

st3fan wrote: post #83

jagger27 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if Apple's satellite operations (like the Siri team in Ottawa, Canada, for example) might have some autonomy and self direction simply due to distance from the mothership. As for a shift in startup culture, what is more tempting than 5 to 10 years of hard work into billion dollar exits? Local governments could start offering tax incentives that build over time—or more aggressively, have steep disincentives o…

Siri team in Ottawa? I find that hard to believe. Why would such an important team not be on the main campus?

[deleted]

Re: Apple acquires Buddybuild

#118

Post by trevor-e » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 6:13 AM UTC

s73ver_ wrote: post #116

trevor-e wrote: post #98

Apple needs to drastically simplify how Xcode builds work instead of acquiring more companies. For example, provisioning profiles solve a problem that doesn't exist while creating a dozen more. Xcode is still limited to macOS. On the deployment side iTunes Connect is possibly the worst website that I've used. It's incredibly slow (both the front and backend) and has limited options for phased releases.

"Xcode is still limited to macOS." Yes, their IDE was made for their platform. I'm not seeing why this is a problem.

Yes, it's totally within their rights to do so, but the walled garden approach is getting old. Microsoft is at least starting to learn to this. If they don't want to port over all of Xcode, at least port xcodebuild and allow us to connect to physical devices. macOS does not make a good build server. If they did things right then companies like Buddybuild and fastlane wouldn't need to exist.

Re: Apple acquires Buddybuild

#119

Post by v1c » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 6:19 AM UTC

There's always Jenkins with Fastlane as an alternative, then again Apple offered the guy that created Fastlane an internship. Maybe Google will put something together for the Android crowd?

Re: Apple acquires Buddybuild

#120

Post by ewjordan » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 6:54 AM UTC

jjeaff wrote: post #115

sebleon wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The logic still applies. 1. Start with platform you're most comfortable with. 2. Iterate on product until you have a winning formula 3. Replicate on 2nd platform to double revenues Building is a lot easier than identifying what to build, better to speedily experiment on one platform.

In my opinion the new logic is build in React Native (unless your app fits in the 10% of use cases that won't work well with RN), then deploy to both at once. We have had excellent results.

React Native is great for apps, and if it's a game, just use Unity. They're building up their internal CI infrastructure and it works better every month.

Tbh, I'm not sure how many use cases don't fit either React Native or Unity, I'd practically never choose to do an app another way these days.