[askafriend]

This is wrong.

If you’re building an early stage consumer startup in the US, you should launch first on iOS period. Use that starting point to iterate rapidly to figure out product-market fit and then launch Android.

There is a reason you see the best consumer companies take this route and it’s not because they’re poor at arithmetic.

[Infinitesimus]

There is of course, a feedback cycle here.

If you always default to launching on iOS, don't be surprised if user adoption is further limited when you eventually get around to launching on Android since by then, there would be competing products or you'll have difficulty changing the perception of "this company thinks I'm a 2nd class citizen, why would I bother?"

(Snap faced some of this for a while though I'm not sure what their distribution metrics look like now)

There is also a critical window when launching on multiple platforms. If you wait too long, the brand's "xyz OS only" will stick and opens the door for your competitor to say "We're like that other app but we actually work and sync across all your devices".

[echelon]

Every time I see an app that seems novel or popular that is iOS only, I form a prejudice against it. I've never, as far as I can recall, gone back to Android offerings once they were eventually launched.

Apps are cancer. Apple is the company responsible for this mess.

[void_mint]

It's good for Apple and iOS users that your opinion is mostly irrelevant in this space.

[Doctor_Fegg]

That means favouring bigcos vs small indie shops with the resources to only develop one platform at a time. Your call, but I find that a strange prejudice to choose.

[askafriend]

I’m not going to give away the entire playbook here but there are several very specific reasons why launching iOS first makes sense.

None of the points you raise are real issues. Android is in-fact a second-class citizen and should be prioritized as such.

Again, there is a reason you see consumer companies adopt an iOS first strategy. Experienced founders can tell you why.

By the way, Snap is a $100B+ company - that’s not a great example to make your point. If your product works, people will come - even the ones that claim they won’t. Cross platform competition is not a real concern.

[jorgemf]

"Android is in-fact a second-class citizen"

Not really if you care about number of users:

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide

[askafriend]

Quantity of users is irrelevant. Obviously Android has more users.

We are specifically talking about launching an early stage consumer startup pre product-market-fit in the US.

[markdown]

For 99.99% of cases I would agree with you. An app like Clubhouse isn't one of them.