This seems as good a place as any to dump thoughts about "app-albums" in general. One thing that I always try to remember is that we're living in the future, and it's foolish to assume that things from the past will work the same way in the future.<p>Hence, app albums. Album apps. Whatever. Point is, people have smartphones now. The music experience is changing because of that. I'm down with it. In fact, $13 for an album with all the extra app functionality seems pretty good, seeing as the standard iTunes album price is $10.<p>But the problem with creating this sort of future-music experience is that it leaves some people behind. It used to be simply an iPhone app, but now there's an android port. Guess what: my phone still can't get it, because my phone's version of android isn't supported by the app. I couldn't get the Magna Carta Holy Grail app either. Apps aren't a universal format like a record or a cd or an MP3. They therefore necessarily leave some people behind.<p>You could argue that every media shift does that. But when the album becomes a sort of multi-media experience, it's tragic that somebody would need a different device that in almost every other respect is functionally identical to their current device to experience it.<p>Which is what makes a service like apportable important: it's expanding the audience of this numedia album experience. I doubt there are many people who want to limit who has access to what art or information, but the problem with being so future is that you're imposing those limits in the pursuit of making something unique.<p>Maybe I'm overthinking it. But I hate feeling like I'm missing some part of the experience because I'm happy with the phone I have.
Apportable blog post on the announcement with a more technical explanation on how Apportable works exactly: <a href="http://blog.apportable.com/apportable-raises-2-dollars-dot-4m-led-by-google-ventures" rel="nofollow">http://blog.apportable.com/apportable-raises-2-dollars-dot-4...</a>
If they are able to get the UIKit framework up and running, then they will have the killer platform overall.
I can see already the advantages for games that are mostly OpenGL but with UIKit it will be 'game over' :-)
Side question, but... <i>why develop for a closed platform like iOS first, and then port to an open(ish) platform like Android?</i> (now, I know some answers, but I really hope people don't start doing this for new projects, even if Apportable is as good as they say...)
Apportable looks like a fantastic product. Does anyone know if such a thing exists going in the other direction (Android to iOS)?<p>Anything to help with making it easier for developers to make reliable cross-platform apps is very valuable to the industry.
This couldn't have happened at a better time for the apps we're working on in the coming months! Congratulations on launching and all the best for the future :)
I'm doing an IAmA about this story:<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1iiyxu/i_cofounded_apportable_and_helped_bj%C3%B6rk_convert/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1iiyxu/i_cofounded_app...</a>
Original title was "YCW11 Objective-C for Android startup Apportable gets 2m led by Google Ventures".<p>More on that story: <a href="http://pevc.dowjones.com/Article?an=DJFVW00020130717e97haongz&cid=32135029&ctype=ts" rel="nofollow">http://pevc.dowjones.com/Article?an=DJFVW00020130717e97haong...</a>