What to launch, and when?
Recently work on @skyhop has been progressing quite rapidly, and I'm getting ready to launch something around March.
Given the extent of my work I am sitting on quite a lot of different features which are currently coming together. Most notably there is a web app, and an mobile app, but I'm thinking about launching only one of those in March. The question is: which one?
I feel like generally a small mobile app leaves a better impression than a web app containing the same features. As such it would be logical to do a mobile first release, while working on finishing the web app.
Launching the web app first has the added value that it can be used from a wider selection of devices.
Any thoughts on this topic?
Ps. I'm currently constrained by my own time.
Go mobile first.
We're definitely a mobile first society and the premise of your product is to track something that doesn't allow ready access to a desktop computer which is the way most web apps are best experienced.
Thanks for your feedback! I definitely like this idea from an UX point of view! But from a marketing point of view I think there might be a benefit to gather some users on a web-app first, and then try to get them on the mobile app as soon as it launches.
Also, I doubt anyone will use the web app when a mobile one is available. As such I have some more benefits to distribute over a longer time period.
I generally would say web first. Reason is, you can slow roll a web launch and fix things as you go. Everyone wants to full blast their products out the gate but there usually isn't a compelling reason to do so. Make sure there are no showstopping issues before spreading it wide.
With mobile, you are confined to the app stores and are only new there once. It can be easier to unveil a mobile app to your existing users and get a mobile bump of good reviews right away.
Thanks for your feedback! I'm not really sure how much I would benefit from a successful app-store launch, but I will look into this!