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And just like that, by dropping Android support, Buddybuild goes from viable solution to total non-starter. Does any serious mobile app development these days r

And just like that, by dropping Android support, Buddybuild goes from viable solution to total non-starter. Does any serious mobile app development these days really go all-in on one platform?

gowld 9y ago
Apple does, obviously.
- r00fus 9y ago
  Except they don't. 1) Apple Music for Android 2) iTunes for Windows.
  - MBCook 9y ago
    Those are the only exceptions. Everything else the make for iOS is exclusive.
TruthSHIFT 9y ago
Yes, iOS first is still extremely common.
- 27182818284 9y ago
  First, but not exclusively. As a long time complainer about the iOS-first mindset I used to keep a spreadsheet actually of how long the Android versions of apps were delayed. I don't recall many iOS and iOS only apps. There was just generally and Android time-tax that Android users had to wait through.
- ringaroundthetx 9y ago
  I made a good career out of selling late-to-the-party native android ports for companies. Its pretty low key lucrative too: - iOS development is crowded, Android devs are more scarce and there are too many unrelated skillset paths to build a native android app. - The APIs are already developed by the time you get there. - The designs have already happened, for the most part. Its no longer a fact finding mission and instead a pure implementation mission. - You make more money and have to deal with less company-wide fires in the process. - Nobody bothers you. You get to be on autopilot. - And its also pretty pointless. Most company's android apps are just a checkbox, store presence to show they haven't neglected it. Nobody is going to actually download it. It was fun for a while, I got my funds up.
  - tzahola 9y ago
    “Can you make it look like the iOS app?”
  - dzonga 9y ago
    my G!! lol....if Kotlin was available back then, I definitely would've jumped on that ship. Now it seems mobile isn't really viable in terms of money though
    - ringaroundthetx 9y ago
      I saw the writing on a the wall in time There is a ceiling you can make doing mobile dev, and companies don't make a return from pursuing it React Native solves the needs of most companies' apps on both platforms, they'll figure it out all pretty quickly at the same time
  - draw_down 9y ago
    Pretty smart!
sidlls 9y ago
If I were to seriously attempt to commercialize the toy apps I build for my kids/family I'd go iOS first easily. People with Apple devices are far likelier to pay, and Android development is, in my view, an inferior experience (although Kotlin makes it marginally less so these days).
- Illniyar 9y ago
  But would you really setup a CI process to automatically build that app? (and one that'll probably cost you at least a 100$ a month)
  - scosman 9y ago
    I would. Every time. I've been happy with bitrise if people are looking for mobile CI alternatives: https://www.bitrise.io/ https://www.bitrise.io/
    - MarkyC4 9y ago
      Bitrise has been great for us at work as well, but we're beginning to investigate Microsoft's CI platform since we build web/desktop apps as well, which aren't a first class citizen in Bitrise. Fwiw: We also wish there was a way to publish test/linting results (you can make it an artifact, but it won't load assets, so you're stuck zipping and downloading or publishing to your own managed Web server)
    - sytse 9y ago
      Bitrise looks very nice for mobile apps. And it is open source https://www.bitrise.io/cli https://www.bitrise.io/cli Are people interested in if we ingrate https://github.com/bitrise-io/bitrise https://github.com/bitrise-io/bitrise in GitLab Runner so it works with GitLab CI?
      - birmacher 9y ago
        We are happy to discuss it in more detail! DM me on twitter @birmacher
izacus 9y ago
Pretty much most larger apps/agencies do development for both platforms. iOS usually gets a bit of a higher priority, but Android is just too big to ignore. Solutions that support both are thus more popular and better idea - but Apple obviously is using all kinds of tactics to discourage development for competing platform. Even buying companies and shutting down their Android (TestFlight is another example).
- IBM 9y ago
  It's silly to think Apple buying Buddybuild is to discourage development for other platforms for the reason you stated, there are plenty of competitors to both TestFlight and Buddybuild. They bought these two companies because they want to enhance their own developer tools.
  - izacus 9y ago
    Yeah, I might have worded that poorly - buying Buddybuild almost certanly wasn't to interfere with Android development. Immediately killing all Android related functionality is to discourage that development though.
    - IBM 9y ago
      I don't believe that at all. The obvious reason why they discontinued Android support is because Apple isn't interested in continuing the existing B2B business. They're interested in the technology and the team and they're likely to integrate it into their own developer tools and offer them for free. Why would Apple invest resources into making developer tools for other platforms? What's the real upside if Buddybuild continued as is and they tried to scale it up? Hundreds of millions in revenue per year? That's a drop in the bucket. Buddybuild's value is strategic, not because it was going to make a financial difference to Apple.
  - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
    Surely Apple are throwing away a lot of the value of what they just bought; does profiting from that harm their own developer tools. IMO that seems almost impossible, the only harm is to protect their eco-system from competition; ergo the reason to stop supporting other eco-systems is to harm the competition? Couldn't they fork the project, keep everything but the name for themselves and set a single guy on maintenance; wouldn't that enhance their own developer tools just as much?
nasalgoat 9y ago
We put off an Android version of our app for nearly two years to concentrate development on the iOS version, and the numbers we get from our Android version - less than 10% of the market and 1% of the subscriptions - prove that was the right thing to do. We'd drop Android completely as the wasteland it is if not for the PR optics of having it.
- jayd16 9y ago
  That doesn't really prove anything. You may or may not have first mover advantage if you sit for two years.
- izacus 9y ago
  Putting off the Android version for two years is a great way to have your potential Android audience move on to your competitors and squander any marketing and networking effect. Noone remembers your app exists after a few months, why did you expect anyone to give a damn about your product after two whole years?!
  - nasalgoat 9y ago
    Our app is in the top 10 grossing apps in the Apple App Store and we market it aggressively. Android users are just not as lucrative or numerous as Apple ones. During that two year delay we made the iOS version a quality product instead of having our attention divided by another platform that delivers less than 10% of the userbase. It was the right move.
    - izacus 9y ago
      What does "top grossing 10" on App Store have to do with anything? Do you think Android users regularly check out Apple App store to look for your software? :P Your attitude is very common among iOS developers and it's the main reason why you only have 10% of userbase on Android - companies that actually understand their audience have no issues reaching wide users and profits on both platforms. If you deliver a subpar submarketed product on App store you will fail. If you deliver a subpar submarketed product on Play Store you'll fail as well. It seems you did the second thing.

And just like that, by dropping Android support, Buddybuild goes from viable solution to total non-starter. Does any serious mobile app development these days really go all-in on one platform?

gowld 9y ago

Apple does, obviously.

r00fus 9y ago
Except they don't. 1) Apple Music for Android 2) iTunes for Windows.
- MBCook 9y ago
  Those are the only exceptions. Everything else the make for iOS is exclusive.

TruthSHIFT 9y ago

Yes, iOS first is still extremely common.

27182818284 9y ago
First, but not exclusively. As a long time complainer about the iOS-first mindset I used to keep a spreadsheet actually of how long the Android versions of apps were delayed. I don't recall many iOS and iOS only apps. There was just generally and Android time-tax that Android users had to wait through.
ringaroundthetx 9y ago
I made a good career out of selling late-to-the-party native android ports for companies. Its pretty low key lucrative too: - iOS development is crowded, Android devs are more scarce and there are too many unrelated skillset paths to build a native android app. - The APIs are already developed by the time you get there. - The designs have already happened, for the most part. Its no longer a fact finding mission and instead a pure implementation mission. - You make more money and have to deal with less company-wide fires in the process. - Nobody bothers you. You get to be on autopilot. - And its also pretty pointless. Most company's android apps are just a checkbox, store presence to show they haven't neglected it. Nobody is going to actually download it. It was fun for a while, I got my funds up.
- tzahola 9y ago
  “Can you make it look like the iOS app?”
- dzonga 9y ago
  my G!! lol....if Kotlin was available back then, I definitely would've jumped on that ship. Now it seems mobile isn't really viable in terms of money though
  - ringaroundthetx 9y ago
    I saw the writing on a the wall in time There is a ceiling you can make doing mobile dev, and companies don't make a return from pursuing it React Native solves the needs of most companies' apps on both platforms, they'll figure it out all pretty quickly at the same time
- draw_down 9y ago
  Pretty smart!

sidlls 9y ago

If I were to seriously attempt to commercialize the toy apps I build for my kids/family I'd go iOS first easily. People with Apple devices are far likelier to pay, and Android development is, in my view, an inferior experience (although Kotlin makes it marginally less so these days).

Illniyar 9y ago
But would you really setup a CI process to automatically build that app? (and one that'll probably cost you at least a 100$ a month)
- scosman 9y ago
  I would. Every time. I've been happy with bitrise if people are looking for mobile CI alternatives: https://www.bitrise.io/ https://www.bitrise.io/
  - MarkyC4 9y ago
    Bitrise has been great for us at work as well, but we're beginning to investigate Microsoft's CI platform since we build web/desktop apps as well, which aren't a first class citizen in Bitrise. Fwiw: We also wish there was a way to publish test/linting results (you can make it an artifact, but it won't load assets, so you're stuck zipping and downloading or publishing to your own managed Web server)
  - sytse 9y ago
    Bitrise looks very nice for mobile apps. And it is open source https://www.bitrise.io/cli https://www.bitrise.io/cli Are people interested in if we ingrate https://github.com/bitrise-io/bitrise https://github.com/bitrise-io/bitrise in GitLab Runner so it works with GitLab CI?
    - birmacher 9y ago
      We are happy to discuss it in more detail! DM me on twitter @birmacher

izacus 9y ago

Pretty much most larger apps/agencies do development for both platforms. iOS usually gets a bit of a higher priority, but Android is just too big to ignore. Solutions that support both are thus more popular and better idea - but Apple obviously is using all kinds of tactics to discourage development for competing platform. Even buying companies and shutting down their Android (TestFlight is another example).

IBM 9y ago
It's silly to think Apple buying Buddybuild is to discourage development for other platforms for the reason you stated, there are plenty of competitors to both TestFlight and Buddybuild. They bought these two companies because they want to enhance their own developer tools.
- izacus 9y ago
  Yeah, I might have worded that poorly - buying Buddybuild almost certanly wasn't to interfere with Android development. Immediately killing all Android related functionality is to discourage that development though.
  - IBM 9y ago
    I don't believe that at all. The obvious reason why they discontinued Android support is because Apple isn't interested in continuing the existing B2B business. They're interested in the technology and the team and they're likely to integrate it into their own developer tools and offer them for free. Why would Apple invest resources into making developer tools for other platforms? What's the real upside if Buddybuild continued as is and they tried to scale it up? Hundreds of millions in revenue per year? That's a drop in the bucket. Buddybuild's value is strategic, not because it was going to make a financial difference to Apple.
- pbhjpbhj 9y ago
  Surely Apple are throwing away a lot of the value of what they just bought; does profiting from that harm their own developer tools. IMO that seems almost impossible, the only harm is to protect their eco-system from competition; ergo the reason to stop supporting other eco-systems is to harm the competition? Couldn't they fork the project, keep everything but the name for themselves and set a single guy on maintenance; wouldn't that enhance their own developer tools just as much?

nasalgoat 9y ago

We put off an Android version of our app for nearly two years to concentrate development on the iOS version, and the numbers we get from our Android version - less than 10% of the market and 1% of the subscriptions - prove that was the right thing to do. We'd drop Android completely as the wasteland it is if not for the PR optics of having it.

jayd16 9y ago
That doesn't really prove anything. You may or may not have first mover advantage if you sit for two years.
izacus 9y ago
Putting off the Android version for two years is a great way to have your potential Android audience move on to your competitors and squander any marketing and networking effect. Noone remembers your app exists after a few months, why did you expect anyone to give a damn about your product after two whole years?!
- nasalgoat 9y ago
  Our app is in the top 10 grossing apps in the Apple App Store and we market it aggressively. Android users are just not as lucrative or numerous as Apple ones. During that two year delay we made the iOS version a quality product instead of having our attention divided by another platform that delivers less than 10% of the userbase. It was the right move.
  - izacus 9y ago
    What does "top grossing 10" on App Store have to do with anything? Do you think Android users regularly check out Apple App store to look for your software? :P Your attitude is very common among iOS developers and it's the main reason why you only have 10% of userbase on Android - companies that actually understand their audience have no issues reaching wide users and profits on both platforms. If you deliver a subpar submarketed product on App store you will fail. If you deliver a subpar submarketed product on Play Store you'll fail as well. It seems you did the second thing.