Development Stack

It’s time to decide which Mobile Stack we wish to use for this AOPA Flight Plan App.  It is vital to seriously consider which way we proceed at this point, not taking the time, may mean losing before we get out of the gate.  Imagine starting a race with your shoe laces tied and your shorts down by your knees.  Won’t get far, and if the “race” is a sprint (short term timeline or goal) you wasted your time, however, if it’s more of a marathon (long term goal) you might be able to recover; there’s still no need to spend time overcoming a major fumble if you could have prevented it.

First off, consider the experience of our development team, if they are strongest with Android then don’t force them to learn Apple iOS.  How important is the limitation of the App, meaning regarding possible growth, the long term scalability?  Do we want to pick a single native app technology that allows access to certain features of specific devices, or willing to be more flexible with cross-platform tech that could limit us to some features?

Looking at our target customers, we figure most would likely own Apple iPhones, but we know Android devices still make up a huge portion of the market and would apply to our customers; our features do not need to be native to just one device. We know API can gather any info necessary to calculate flight plans.  Developing for Apple iOS would prove harder and more expensive, the native code is stricter, limited, and unfriendly to non iOS devices. Using Hybrid Native tools to “wrap” our App to work for both can not be trusted as this is still adapting and is yet to be perfected.  We feel our team is more Android savvy, and would be easier to achieve our MVP quicker following this path.  We will not limit ourselves to just Android devices, cross-platform technology will be incorporated where necessary.

In summery, it is my belief (my personal opinion not expertise) that it is easier to go from Android to iOS than the other way around.  I am sure there are exceptions, and probably quite a few programmers or designers that would argue that, still I feel focusing on the Android Mobile Development Stack would be the most productive for this project.