That’s a shame. I would even be willing to pay a monthly subscription for platform neutral/web based software like this. Huge missed opportunity in my opinion.
I should have specified better when I said “cloud based” here, I should have said “cloud first”. Wavemaker supports full offline capability through its PWA, however, it is completely cloud based with how it syncs. When it’s offline you have all the same tools, but the connection backs up your saves. I think Scrivener should take a page out of Wavemaker’s book. Sure it’s a little rough around the edges, but it is a great example that shows what’s possible. If we can have apps like Figma in the browser, Scrivener is definitely possible.
I assume that’s because you have something like 4.99 in mind. Realistically, after Scrivener goes subscription, the two or three remaining customers would pay a couple hundred bucks a month for a way less powerful app.
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He has spoken about the difficulty of producing the iOS version from the macOS sources even though both platforms have shared toolkits and created by the same company. The issue, I vaguely recall, was to do with the vast differences in interactions of the two Apple produced platforms;keyboard versus touch. As Android provides nothing similar to those Apple toolkits and likely cannot inherit anything from either Apple or Windows versions I can understand the skepticism over “neutral” tools.
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QT runs on Android, so at least some aspects of Windows Scrivener can be leveraged for Android Scrivener development.
For reference, see this older post by Keith and this more recent one by Tiho (in regards to Android Scapple!).
Best,
Jim
37% is not a ‘dip’ it’s a raging collapse! Chromebox may say ‘nothing to worry about’, but I (and a number of market commentators) disagree.
You mention Apple seeing sales dips from time to time. Yes, but certainly nowhere near those figures. Apple has a ‘bad’ quarter if sales dip a few points, and there’s usually a bounce the following quarter.
‘Battery Life - yes, you can get great battery life on a lot of devices nowadays. Not nearly as much on lower end devices though. In these cases, Chromebooks excel.’ The stats I gave, show MacBooks with up to double the battery life of a quality Chromebook, with significantly greater performance.
The Chromebooks the school threw out were mid range and purchased because of special offers promoted by Google from memory. The reality they are finding is, the Macs and iPads are giving them a lower lifetime cost. They don’t want to spend similar money on a platform that in their mind gives far less quality, usability and less access to quality apps.
Re comparative pricing. The reality is the VAST majority of Android devices worldwide are not just ‘affordable’ but in fact ‘cheap’. Many ship with outdated versions of Android and extremely limited or no version upgrade path. The last stats I recall had higher end Android making up less than 20% of the total market.
You also mention saturation. I don’t think any market is approaching that. What we are seeing is a drop off in PC sales due to several reasons including a run on sales early in the pandemic, so replacement sales have been pushed back in time. I wouldn’t call that saturation. During all this, Mac sales and market share continue to grow.
Apps exclusively on iOS (walled garden you said) can be written for Android if the developer wishes to. Apple has never placed any restriction there, so I’m not sure how you come to the ‘if Apple were to…play nicely’. What many developers find is the PAYING demand is on iOS.
You say you can guarantee a majority of sales are games. That is true, but I’m not sure how it supports your argument. That is the very category where apps tend to be cross-platform - the biggest market. When you filter down to complex apps, those are the ones that require significant development commitment and more likely to be limited to a performance platform of customers prepared to spend.
You go on to mention a subscription and Web App version. I for one would drop Scrivener if it ever became a progressive web app and/or subscription. I’ve played with a couple of web apps and found them frustrating and unsatisfactory. As for subscription. I dropped Ulysses the day it went sub.
As JimRac mentioned, QT runs on Android and L&L have core code for Scrivener and Snapple working on Android. I’m sure in time Android versions will be released and the market will show if there really are enough people on Android who are prepared to pay for L&L quality apps.
Lastly, you mentioned the Linux beta. Ever thought why, after all these years it’s an unsupported beta and not in active development? Insufficient paying market to justify the time and cost in bringing it to market?
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