[earroway]

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.

[vnorby]

I think you need mobile. Leaving it out is a mistake because you need to be where your customers are (to me - of course it depends on your app). I just think that mobile is the wrong place to start right now.

Sorry for the word overdose. I have a degree in philosophy and computer science; just the right combination to produce overly lengthy and verbose blog posts.

[earroway]

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.

[cageface]

It's easy to make money on either the App Store or google play - work freelance for other people.