Maximizing Your Reach As A Startup
Should you be building for multiple device platforms?
I often meet and discuss with entrepreneurs looking to build a product. Once I hear a solution the conversation typically goes something like:
Me: “So, what platform are you building for”.
Entrepreneur: “Well, I can only afford iOS right now, so I’m just making the one”
Me: “You ever think about a hybrid app?”
This is the point of two possible responses.
#1 “What’s a hybrid app?”
or
#2 “Well, I heard companies like Facebook ditched hybrid apps, so I’m going full native too”
This conversation reveals two common issues with product development and startups today.
- The new wave of developing cross platform apps is flying right over everyone’s head
- They compare their 10–15 (or smaller) person operation to these other startups that caught fire and are well beyond being a startup by now. There are absolutely pros and cons to the hybrid approach. But the pros greatly exceed the cons when you're a small-mid size team. By all means, if you have the (unlimited) resources like Facebook, have at it. However, they too are investing into hybrid development these days with their React Native project.
I don’t blame these startups, most companies for that matter are unaware of building cross platform applications.
Cross platform applications are a must for any company or startup looking to be as efficient as possible with their resources. Share code across multiple platforms and reduce overall cost while getting to market quicker.
New advancements have allowed web developers to overcome some of the worst aspects of hybrid development, like using real native UI for that 60fps buttery smoothness.
Conclusion
Regardless of what you think of hybrid or hybrid-native development it’s this simple.
10 users walk into your pitch. 5 of them leave because they don’t like your idea. Whatever. Haters gonna hate.
3 of those 5 who love the idea have Android. Uh oh, you only built for iOS. You leave with 2 potential users.
Doesn’t 5 sound better than 2?
The snapshot above shows the Q4 sales from 2016 out of a report from Gartner. If anything, this should be pretty convincing that your customers are not on one device.
Before you pick up the phone and call the objective-c or java dev, you may want to take a look at developing a cross platform application.
Both React Native and NativeScript for Angular are viable options. Which one you should use is really a matter of preference and if you are using one of these frameworks already in your organization.
