Well, TIDE is now officially a dead project. I just got this email about 15 minutes ago.
TideKit.com and TideKit have been discontinued.
TideKit was software for developing apps for all platforms
simultaneously with a single base of code written in JavaScript.
The scope and complexity of the product made it difficult to
assemble the platform all at once. This stemmed from a holistic
approach to app development for all platforms. While creating a
platform for JavaScript developers, much of the core engineering is in
a variety of lower level languages that affect the speed of
development. We considered delivering parts of our platform as we
reached milestones, but this was not suitable for the start of trials.
We were widely criticized for not revealing our technical innovation
in advance of our release. In a competitive environment, revealing
advantages as you go can also mean assimilation as you go. We had
already witnessed how quickly our technical advantages could be
assimilated by competitors to our open source TideSDK product.
Therefore, we held back with a view of delaying the duplication of
features by competitors, increasing our technical barriers and working
to protect our IP and business case until we felt we were ready.
In a startup, we talk about a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). In our
case, our minimum viable product was much larger and more difficult to
achieve. In total, approximately three years of research and
development was committed with multiple developers working greater
than full time hours. A factor that extended the development was an
expansion of scope that aimed to lower friction in the app development
process.
In Feb 2014, we created a system to queue developers with
reservation system for the earliest possible access to TideKit. Our
goal was to provide an early trial when it became available. Since the
development itself was complex, we could not provide a date when
ticket holders could start the trial process – but it would be
following our betas, then moving forward as we scaled the platform.
We were clear with our language on the site concerning reservations.
As a result, we expected little confusion about what was being
purchased, our expectations of timing to market, or the terms of
purchase for a reservation ticket. Purchasers were not paying for our
product at this point, but for their position in a queue for a trial
of our new technology. We also included a refund policy to ensure the
terms of purchase for your ticket were available. The wait has been
long, but not nearly as long as other difficult engineering challenges
including Myo that pre-sold their product and were also delayed before
successfully rolling out.
Throughout the development cycle we provided updates of our status
via posts roadmap page, email to our ticket holders and communications
on our social channels. We did our best as a team to open ourselves to
questions and maintain a social presence.
At the end of May 2015, we communicated our strategy to execute a
series of focused betas that would have seen the platform revealed
publicly and incrementally. We were at a stage that parts of the
platform needed developer feedback as we rolled these out
consecutively.
In the days preparing for our first public beta, we recognized the
extent to which our brand had been poisoned by our timing to market. A
campaign of negativity that had begun several months earlier with
followers and ticket holders had taken its toll on our team, brand,
and business.
We believed the beta releases would soon bring an end to the
negative talk. On July 8 and 9 we faced further eruptions on social
media that reached the tipping point. With the discussion no longer
about the product nor its future, this was far more serious.
We failed to bring the product quickly enough for you. As a result,
we came to the serious decision to discontinue TideKit and dissolve
our company.
We wish to thank everyone involved that worked on the product and with
our team. This includes businesses, entrepreneurs and supporters of
our vision for app development.
Your TideKit Team
