@37signals

Why the strong push into mobile apps?

You use to be a strong advocates of web only apps (even if accessed by mobile devise).

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2761-launch-basecamp-mobile

@Derick, mobile penetration today is a lot different than it was in 2011.

How so?

@Kevin #They also used to be against public betas, which were a ‘cop out’ and ‘bullshit’... If it’s not good enough for public consumption don’t give it to the public to consume.

Things change. Attitudes shift, or the attitudes you were trying to sell in book one becomes less important when you’re trying to sell new stuff. Shouldn’t surprise anyone.

@Geel an opt-in beta for native mobile clients is much different than a forced public beta on a website that everyone has to use if paying for the product. On the web you’re trying to support a handful of browser/OS combinations in general, on Android it’s good to get a wide range of testers considering there are thousands of devices out there.

Yeah I wasn’t playing gotcha. I think it’s fine, even to be expected, to change views,

Still, I think you’re splitting hairs. The distinction made in that bit of GR is about private vs public. This seems pretty public to me. No one has to use a product at all, (even Basecamp) as there are plenty of pretty reasonable alternatives for most things.

It seems pretty private to me. I mean—I don’t have a Basecamp account. So, although I would like to be able to check it out and even test it on my Android phone [Google Nexus 4], I cannot.

Yes, I know that I can start a two-month trial. But honestly, things happen. I get busy. And two months is not enough trial time for me. I would want to try it out on projects I do pro bono for my church. Those are few and there are big gaps of time between rushes. Just sayin’.

But I am glad to see you pushing into the Android market. There are many folks out in the market that would love access to things like Basecamp, but we cannot afford iPhones.

Keep up the good work.

Unfortunately, app development has more in common with desktop software than web software, so just releasing it doesn’t work as well since it can’t be updated as rapidly.

A company gets to where they are big enough to have a good mobile site and a native app. I’m cool with that, though I would like to see more home screen/offline web apps out there instead of just mobile-friendly browser views.

All of our projects are managed on Basecamp. We’re in the office, at court, in a bank, at a restaurant, or in an assisted living facility with clients. Mobile project management and time capture are critical to us. We use both Android and iOS.

Basecamp works for us because the UI is intuitive and the features meet our need for accountability, communication and getting things done. The mobile version makes it possible for me to attend to the needs of a client in the ER while staying in the loop on a real estate sale and reaching a plumber to fix a leaky faucet.

As a user who doesn’t code, I’m more interested in my experience with Basecamp and the results I can obtain when using it than what makes it go.