1. Hope you didn't keep your response short merely on account of my comment...i was only jesting.
2. A huge fraction (imo) of the apps available in the app-stores did not need to go native mobile.
Mobile app-stores have mountains of apps that really have nothing mobile specific about them. This astounds me. Yet developers spent serious time/effort building these native apps. Why? I suspect it is the web-noise that continually dangles stats about gazzillion smartphone app downloads that triggers a greed hormone in philosophers and scientists alike, which begins to make them see mobile everywhere.
I am not suggesting that there's no need to address the form-factor issue. Only that "native mobile" of the app-store variety is frequently not a good strategy. Certainly not, as you point out, as a first-option.
Aside: You state "you need to be where your customers are". Yes, but if you define customers as those that play a role in generating revenue (either by paying directly for services rendered, or by permitting you to arbitrage someway), is mobile the place to be? This is obviously only a rhetorical question...you address this in your original article. I am just a bit outraged that the ios store has a million deluded worker bees building apps for it when they won't see a penny. Instead, they could've leveraged their work by owning the entire stack.
Read your entire article. If you weren't so parsimonious with words, I suspect I would be reading well into the night. :-)
More seriously: It is a given that app stores primarily generate free content for the platform-owner and enhances the value of supported platforms. (Additional outlays for dev+test hardware+licensing+developer-hours add insult to injury) Surprisingly not many developers seem to care or account for. With the amount of free noise in there, it is not surprising that you guys experienced what you did. Thanks for confirming what we had deduced indirectly.
Our startup launched deliberately as a web-app even though it would've been easier to get more (initial) eyeballs with a mobile-first strategy. For reasons you develop (and more), mobile apps aren't part of our current road-map (although we do address form-factor related nuances). We did consider expending resources to go mobile a few weeks ago but it made more sense to focus on creating new "content".
Last, the level of control gained (as you allude to) by owning A-Z of the product+distribution is truly empowering. That said, there is an undeniable development and eyeball cost associated with it. We should acknowledge this.
Great idea. Wish the project much success. Once it is further along, my startup will give this product a shot -- in particular the java server integration is of interest to me.
Whenever a module/feature gets completed, please consider creating short how-to docs/videos. This is a consumer oriented product, so friction to deploy should be minimal.
Open Source monetization options
1. Support (Red Hat)
2. Customization/ professional services
3. Documentation (JBoss in the olden days and most recently with jBPM)
4. Optimization tools
FOSS also helps in sourcing an international labor pool to lower product development costs.
For consumers, mature FOSS provides alternatives to the traditional per CPU cost model. As product spaces and FOSS alternatives mature, the cost models of proprietary software makes little sense.
Long time ago when I was a newbie, I used w3schools to ramp up on web basics. The format was easy to use. I still to back occasionally for a quick double check on syntax.
For naysayers that believe that better options exist in the space for newbies, perhaps they could provide links to these resources.
Glad it worked for you, Ryan. You makes some very valid points, especially in #3.
As I am learning daily, techpreneurship has so many facets from the core technical, to biz dev, sales and day to day activities. Can be overwhelming to go solo (assuming one has all the various abilities). Though I am not personally sold no the idea of having a co-founder, I think it helps to bring in folks to augment as needed.
What specific news site features are you looking for? Additionally, what toolset skills does the startup team possess?
I have used Liferay in the past and can see how it can be used to create a news site. However it needs Java skills. I am pretty sure products such as Joomla etc. can be used too (though I have not used any of them).
2. A huge fraction (imo) of the apps available in the app-stores did not need to go native mobile.
Mobile app-stores have mountains of apps that really have nothing mobile specific about them. This astounds me. Yet developers spent serious time/effort building these native apps. Why? I suspect it is the web-noise that continually dangles stats about gazzillion smartphone app downloads that triggers a greed hormone in philosophers and scientists alike, which begins to make them see mobile everywhere.
I am not suggesting that there's no need to address the form-factor issue. Only that "native mobile" of the app-store variety is frequently not a good strategy. Certainly not, as you point out, as a first-option.
Aside: You state "you need to be where your customers are". Yes, but if you define customers as those that play a role in generating revenue (either by paying directly for services rendered, or by permitting you to arbitrage someway), is mobile the place to be? This is obviously only a rhetorical question...you address this in your original article. I am just a bit outraged that the ios store has a million deluded worker bees building apps for it when they won't see a penny. Instead, they could've leveraged their work by owning the entire stack.