Comment by joekrill
7 years ago
When I was typing that comment, I was actually going to elaborate on this point, but decided not to for brevity.
The reality is, if a developer can generate greater reach, it gives more options to the consumer. And so in that regard it does solve a problem for the end user - they have more software options to choose from. Perhaps there is more competition, which I think we can all probably agree is good for users.
Sure, I get that it's important for your product to attract developers in order to present a thriving software ecosystem to the users. It is, but the users don't care how you do it. So marketing developer-centric features to end users is a waste of time and money.
But their market audience are developers/power users.
I'm a developer/power user and I don't find the product very compelling. I'm not a mobile developer though. I see my phone as an appliance: I just want it to work (and it does that very well, with the exception of touchID).
My laptop is where I do all of my serious computing. I have no desire to run bash or vim or tmux on my phone.
> The reality is, if a developer can generate greater reach, it gives more options to the consumer.
But if the cost of doing so is that the apps have to be mediocre, is that really good?