[nfbcs] FW: compiling iPhone apps to Android apps

[Joseph C. Lininger]

The article makes some good points, specifically the thing about 
cross-platform development and the use of different development 
environments. It's not always a straight forward problem. I don't 
develop mobile apps, but I've written code that I wanted to run on, say, 
Linux and Windows for instance and even simple software can present a 
challenge there.

It makes another good point though, at the very beginning of the 
article, although it tries to gloss over it. Without going into actual 
numbers which are certain to be wrong anyway, I'll just say that 
excluding either the Android or the Apple community severely limits the 
audience for your app. Perhaps in the case of the NFB app specifically, 
it doesn't matter that much since I've noticed most of the NFB members I 
know use an apple device. However, in the general case that's not a 
guarantee. In fact, it's not even a garantee in the blind community. I'm 
not part of the federation, but I am a blind mobile user. I carry an 
Android device myself, and have no interest in changing devices.

As an interesting side note, some of the Apple users I know can get 
downright annoying about trying to talk me into switching smart phones 
and/or buying a MAC. (It's something that happens with both blind and 
sighted people) It's gotten bad enough I've had to start preempting 
people by saying "not interested", more or less politely, when they 
first get started. Makes people mad, but saves me at least 10 minutes 
worth of time that I don't have to spend pretending to listen. LOL
Joe