Some good points here, though I'd substitute "Windows" for each instance of "mobile" or "iOS". Last I looked, the iOS market was but a speck of the Windows market.

And I take exception to part of this:

First is that it [the merry world of Mac] is a heavily saturated market in which competitors already support multiple platforms.

Most of the really good Mac outliner software does *not* support Windows. Why indeed develop yet more software (which does basically the same thing) for a "heavily saturated market" when the bone-dry, by comparison, Windows market looks pleadingly up from its supine position, arid tongue desperate for the merest drop of Ulysses or DevonThink or ...


Luhmann wrote:

Several people suggested that the desktop-first development strategy is
realistic. I suppose a lot depends on whether the developer is doing
this to make a living or just as a labor of love. If the latter, I wish
them the best of luck. If it is a business, however, I'm not sure I
understand. There are a couple of problems. First is that it is a
heavily saturated market in which competitors already support multiple
platforms. Why would anyone who already has a decent product that
supports all their devices switch to something that didn't? I suppose it
is OK if you have enough users who spend all day and night in front of a
desktop computer, but from the stats I see on websites I manage I know
that most people are now visiting from mobile devices. What are these
users supposed to do when they want to add some task away from their
computer? Wait till they get home or to the office? Use another device?
OK, so maybe it makes sense as a long-term plan. In two or three years
there will be support for multiple devices and then the business will
really take off because of all that time working on making sure that you
have a really solid foundation on the desktop. Maybe, but (unless I'm
wrong about this) you would have to manage with a really limited user
base during that time, and by the time you are ready the competitors
will already be releasing the next generation upgrades of their
products. Even though I don't use Things 3, I admit that it was a pretty
amazing update from Things 2. What will Things 4 look like? The
developer of 2Do (who supports 3 platforms on his own) is in the process
of buying BusyCal, what will it look like when he's finished integrating
the two apps? So, to repeat what I said at the beginning. As a labor of
love, and a playground to experiment with some really interesting ideas
I think this is fantastic, but I really don't see anything taking off
without mobile from the very beginning…