Why not support all platforms, all operating systems and then EVERYONE CAN USE IT!!!???! :D I WANT TO RUN IT ON MY ZX SPECTRUM AND GAMEBOY AND CASIO WATCH!!!!!?!?!! XDXD
Seriously though, I suspect it came down to the realities of business decisions and software development. Limited resources and risk. They probably wanted to make a high quality product controllable from a mobile device, tablet and phone. They potentially also wanted to guarantee really tight, good, integration on release to maximise the potential return on initial investment.
They could have chosen to support a number of platforms but something has to give. It would have either meant:
- Increasing the size of the investment (risk)
- More time in R&D (longer time to market)
- Potentially less predictable customer experience (android device and manufacturer variance)
- Reduced quality
The device itself is a new concept, they have no idea how well it will sell in the market. Is it not better that they released earlier, then got feedback, if it proves to be a success then they can look to expand the platform in future. If not, then less lost.
If you were given a fixed release date for the hardware & limited development/test resource what would you do? Support 1 OS with great quality or two with reduced quality? You can't have your cake and eat it.
Sure you could reach more customers supporting a wider device base but at what cost?
It makes a lot of sense to develop for one device at first and see how it goes. Purposefully selecting and limiting the potential market.
There are many potential reasons for picking iOS most of which have been mentioned already. Basically they decided that IOS was best fit for the initial target market or as a flagship offering. Then wait to see how the market receives it before making a decision on additional support.
Frustrating for non-iOS owners I know. Let's all just be happy for the lovely new toy our Apple owning brethren get to play with and hope the idea sells well enough for Line6 to get around to expanding the target market and releasing an android version at some point. Maybe lessons learned from the iOS release could even lead to it being a superior version. Also then I could consider buying the amp :) I can't be affording these iBrandedDevices.
