We have too much fear of Apple. The approval cycle alone stifles your creativity.
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2014/04/features/how-whatsapp-beat-facebook/viewall
Great article on WhatsApp and it’s refreshingly singular focus on a simple user experience, and how their entire development process is built to support it. It also talks about their complex relationship with Apple and shares how the inclusiveness of the App Store hurts their ability to innovate.
Tango, a messaging app and mobile social network, has raised $280 million … Eric Setton, CTO and co-founder of Tango, says 70 million of its 200 million registered users are active every month.
Tango Raises $280 Million via Business Insider
I used Tango for a short while on my Windows Phone before Skype was released on the platform. Not a surprising valuation for Tango given the recent WhatsApp purchase and their MAU’s. Their monetization and virality model seems focused on not dissuading users in any way (i.e. no core functionality behind paywalls).
The experience made it clear that WhatsApp, even with more than 450 million users, by no means has certain domination of the free texting market — and you would think it might if Facebook paid up to $19 billion to acquire the start-up.
“For Free Texting Apps, the Market Is Far From Conquered” via NYTimes.
I also have this “which app are you on?” experience whenever I meet people at conferences or networking events, especially internationally. My “messaging” folder of apps gets a workout daily as I switch between WhatsApp (friends in Mexico and Spain), GroupMe (Seattle friends), Skype (work), Facebook Messenger (NYC and Boston friends), then a much smaller percentage of time on Line and Viber (random international folks).
#neato 