My idea of the mobile-first strategy (or it's younger sibling: a tablet-first strategy) is that in it's core it defines how you approach user interaction design

My idea of the mobile-first strategy (or it's younger sibling: a tablet-first strategy) is that in it's core it defines how you approach user interaction design. In the future, most of consumer internet services and a significant number of business tools are primarily used via mobile devices and tablets. In my opinion, this is a safe bet to make and startups starting today should make that bet. However, it doesn't dictate neither your initial distribution strategies or your platform or technology choices today. For example you design a mobile user experience, but implement it with HTML 5 and Javascript and wrap that implementation to an app for distribution (and payment) purposes. Or you implement that as a native app because at the moment you can create a smoother experience that way. Or you skip the app part and build just an easy mobile web experience to make on-boarding easy. Distribution tactics and technologies change as mobile platforms evolve, but the fact you need to design for mobile usage doesn't. Our new startup is doing serious data analysis tool, but from the surface it looks like a very simple tool. We believe this simplicity is essential to succeed in the world where our service will be mainly used via tablets and mobile phones.