You don't need to "support" any platform. It's a fucking blog that you have to pay for. HTTP Basic Auth and Recurly/Chargify/your favorite payment provider here and you "support" every platform in existence.

A magazine is not an 'app' and does not need to be treated as such.

Sounds easy, you should go build it!

Seriously, sorry for the snark but that has been done and it is just not what Marco is doing here and now.

It is his experiment, and he is clearly willing to own its failure or success.

And clearly other people are willing to own their own opinions on his "experiment".

So we're just going to ignore the established purchasing habits of those with accounts that have pre-registered credit cards for argument's sake?

> A magazine is not an 'app' and does not need to be treated as such.

Ask anyone who is currently trying to stay afloat in the magazine industry and I think you'll get quite a different answer. I wouldn't be surprised if most magazines have almost all their growth in the past year or two thanks to redefining magazines as apps.

Type-setting, layout, user experience. A magazine is not an app, but a magazine can be an app.

But:

1. He did pay to have an Instapaper Android app developed.

2. Being the editor for a magazine seems like it will take up a lot of time to me (even though he seems blase about it). Finding writers, chasing them down at deadline time, etc.

3. The parent didn't mention Android. I think a lot of people would be happy with a web option.

He did not pay to have an Instapaper app developed for Android, the company that developed it did so on their own dime and he only gets a cut of the sale price.

People keep mentioning a web option, but Marco just has to use Newsstand on iOS and not care about billing, logins or what have you. He does some of these things with Instapaper, so he would have a good idea of the time and hassle involved.

I also think along the same lines as grandparent, however I would not suggest Android (as you seem to think), but the most obvious platform for news/magazines (text and images): html5.

> why should he support Android?

Because a huge portion of his potential audience is inaccessible, due to his platform choice.

Maybe he doesn't care. There is no obligation when creating a product to reach the widest audience possible. Everyone when making mobile apps draws the support line somewhere.

Absolutely true. It's his decision which platforms he releases on. It just seems like such a waste of potential audience - iPhone isn't dominant any more, there are at least as many people on Android (especially us hackers) - and it does suck being on the Android side and not having access to this. But it's totally his decision.

you forgot 0. He's an Apple fanboy. The other reasons are just after the fact justifications.

So then where are the Android fans launching magazines exclusive to that platform if it's such a lucrative market and iOS exclusivity is motivated only by fanboyism?