Cross-platform releases

If you are launching a new app, having to choose between iOS and Android quickly becomes an early decision point. If you are bootstrapped, you will likely end up choosing one or the other. While hybrid solutions exist, they can end up compromising some experiential aspects. We will cover hybrid versus native issues in Chapter 9, Native, Hybrid, or Cross-Platform.

Web developers about a decade back faced, in certain ways, similar issues with the browser wars. Building for IE, Mozilla, and Opera felt like three completely different browsers at times. Developers launching a new product often had to play it safe and focus on just one popular primary platform to start with.

For mobile app developers, choosing just one platform to start with works for a number of utilitarian apps. However, many apps, such as messenger apps, involve interacting with others in your community. This quickly becomes difficult in an experimentation context since it requires others to be on the same platform. This also gets slightly tricky while recruiting users for testing, since you need to focus on users who are on the same platform that you are targeting.

Later in the book, we will explore the benefits and drawbacks of cross-platform apps versus native apps, then discuss techniques for choosing the right approach for your initial business.