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Flutter just needs to close up shop - I'm surprised it's still going after the layoffs. The value of a cross-platform SDK just doesn't make sense anymore. If yo

Flutter just needs to close up shop - I'm surprised it's still going after the layoffs. The value of a cross-platform SDK just doesn't make sense anymore. If you are a small startup, going iOS only is feasible. If you are a huge company, you'll need native devs anyway, so why add a Google dependency? Makes no sense.

BaculumMeumEst 4y ago
i recall speculation that they planned to deprecate or replace the android sdk with flutter
- saurik 4y ago
  That would require someone actually having the power to be able to make such a decision, but Google internally seems to just end up with squabbling camps that try to defend their turf.
spenster 4y ago
> The value of a cross-platform SDK just doesn't make sense anymore. It makes perfect sense to the market. Flutter in fact fills a niche that does pay off in many use cases. Is it the perfect fit for everything? No, but for many small dev shops "going iOS only" is not feasible at all, since they need market penetration across platforms; and going native for two platforms is not practical since they don't have the dev resources.
Aulig 4y ago
Going iOS only is not feasible at all outside of the US, where iOS has a much smaller market share than their 55% in the US.
thewizardofaus 4y ago
I am sole founder of a bootstrapped hardware startup. My main competitor is iOS only. As I'm the only developer Flutter allowed me to create both iOS and Android apps simultaneously (with some tweaking). My customer base is approximately 80% iOS / 20% Android.
- BoorishBears 4y ago
  You just made their case. I've worked on some of the top apps in both the Play Store and the App Store in the past, and it's a well known fact: Android doesn't pay. No it doesn't literally pay $0, but while you can support Android for a ton of reasons, none of them should ever be: "We expect Android to directly pull its fair weight in terms of revenue". It might enable you to engage customers in other channels for example, like with your hardware product, but Android itself, as in IAPs and ads, will rarely ever catch up with iOS. - 20% of your base being on Android and in exchange you've locked yourself out of a massive amount of development resources, end up building a ton on 3rd party components that bridge the least common denominator problem, spent a non-zero amount of engineering effort on a non-native experience for your users, you'll lag on platform improvements users get excited about... It's just not a good deal unless you're in a case where an outside factor bridges the gap. Most Flutter projects won't have a hardware product for that.
  - rhaway84773 4y ago
    You’re right. Why should we as developers target plebes who can’t afford to buy $1000 dollar devices and opt for platforms that start at a fraction of that, ie the majority of the world. F’ing commoners.
    - BoorishBears 4y ago
      Apple makes what is easily the best value of any mobile device with the SE line, and I already called out that you can support Android for reasons other than raw profit. Maybe save the childlike angst for when you have an actual point.
    - captainredbeard 4y ago
      It’s not classist to target consumers that spend money.
    - matchbok 4y ago
      iPhone SE is cheaper than many Android phones, and will last much, much longer. Most people only get 2 years out of an Android phone because of how poorly designed the OS is. So, no, it's not a luxury item.
thefounder 4y ago
I assume you think the same about electron
gman83 4y ago
There's a reason they held their conference in Kenya. Flutter is very popular in Africa & Asia. For American & maybe European startups iOS only is feasible, everywhere else not so much.
realusername 4y ago
Without Flutter that's the opposite, only the Android app would have existed and I would have gave up on iOS. Flutter is the only reason the iOS app exists at all. I'm in a market where 95%+ of users are on Android and the lower quality of the dev ecosystem on Apple platforms isn't exactly helping.
prennert 4y ago
We did use flutter to build something like a companion app for our B2B product targeted at enterprises. One dev supported Android and iOS and performance was good (no battery issues, etc for an app that was mostly always running). It was a blessing that we chose a cross platform approach as our users did not decide which the devices they use, corporate does. And it can change its mind. I do get the fear of the Google dependency, though. I did feel lucky that support did not end before we were done with it.

BaculumMeumEst 4y ago

i recall speculation that they planned to deprecate or replace the android sdk with flutter

saurik 4y ago
That would require someone actually having the power to be able to make such a decision, but Google internally seems to just end up with squabbling camps that try to defend their turf.

spenster 4y ago

> The value of a cross-platform SDK just doesn't make sense anymore. It makes perfect sense to the market. Flutter in fact fills a niche that does pay off in many use cases. Is it the perfect fit for everything? No, but for many small dev shops "going iOS only" is not feasible at all, since they need market penetration across platforms; and going native for two platforms is not practical since they don't have the dev resources.

Aulig 4y ago

Going iOS only is not feasible at all outside of the US, where iOS has a much smaller market share than their 55% in the US.

thewizardofaus 4y ago

I am sole founder of a bootstrapped hardware startup. My main competitor is iOS only. As I'm the only developer Flutter allowed me to create both iOS and Android apps simultaneously (with some tweaking). My customer base is approximately 80% iOS / 20% Android.

BoorishBears 4y ago
You just made their case. I've worked on some of the top apps in both the Play Store and the App Store in the past, and it's a well known fact: Android doesn't pay. No it doesn't literally pay $0, but while you can support Android for a ton of reasons, none of them should ever be: "We expect Android to directly pull its fair weight in terms of revenue". It might enable you to engage customers in other channels for example, like with your hardware product, but Android itself, as in IAPs and ads, will rarely ever catch up with iOS. - 20% of your base being on Android and in exchange you've locked yourself out of a massive amount of development resources, end up building a ton on 3rd party components that bridge the least common denominator problem, spent a non-zero amount of engineering effort on a non-native experience for your users, you'll lag on platform improvements users get excited about... It's just not a good deal unless you're in a case where an outside factor bridges the gap. Most Flutter projects won't have a hardware product for that.
- rhaway84773 4y ago
  You’re right. Why should we as developers target plebes who can’t afford to buy $1000 dollar devices and opt for platforms that start at a fraction of that, ie the majority of the world. F’ing commoners.
  - BoorishBears 4y ago
    Apple makes what is easily the best value of any mobile device with the SE line, and I already called out that you can support Android for reasons other than raw profit. Maybe save the childlike angst for when you have an actual point.
  - captainredbeard 4y ago
    It’s not classist to target consumers that spend money.
  - matchbok 4y ago
    iPhone SE is cheaper than many Android phones, and will last much, much longer. Most people only get 2 years out of an Android phone because of how poorly designed the OS is. So, no, it's not a luxury item.

thefounder 4y ago

I assume you think the same about electron

gman83 4y ago

There's a reason they held their conference in Kenya. Flutter is very popular in Africa & Asia. For American & maybe European startups iOS only is feasible, everywhere else not so much.

realusername 4y ago

Without Flutter that's the opposite, only the Android app would have existed and I would have gave up on iOS. Flutter is the only reason the iOS app exists at all. I'm in a market where 95%+ of users are on Android and the lower quality of the dev ecosystem on Apple platforms isn't exactly helping.

prennert 4y ago

We did use flutter to build something like a companion app for our B2B product targeted at enterprises. One dev supported Android and iOS and performance was good (no battery issues, etc for an app that was mostly always running). It was a blessing that we chose a cross platform approach as our users did not decide which the devices they use, corporate does. And it can change its mind. I do get the fear of the Google dependency, though. I did feel lucky that support did not end before we were done with it.