Does Mobile = Money and Desktop = Road Kill?

This is a guest article from Drew Myers.

So, you’re building a new travel technology startup. Do you build for desktop or mobile?

Mobile is the future, without a doubt. Don’t listen to me; take the word of Rich Barton and Bill Gurley at the GeekWire Summit. Yet, often times, mobile is a secondary consideration for founders working on new products.

I spoke with a technical co-founder abroad (outside of the travel industry) about a week ago. He is several weeks away from releasing his beta offering, which is absolutely a mobile use case, in my opinion. Yet, when I asked him, “what is your beta offering designed for?” His response was “desktop.”

Matt Zito picked up on the same issue at the Eye for Eye Distribution Summit he recently attended, and shared it as one of his takeaways in his last blog post:

2. Mobile is the future yet hardly anyone in the audience is investing in mobile for their travel companies. This didn’t make much sense.

The obvious question — Why? (more…)