If 2020 was a year of change for Xojo, 2021 was the year many of the pieces fell into place. From API 2.0, an Android pre-release, Apple Silicon native IDE, building and remote debugging 64-bit macOS apps from Windows and Linux and dark mode on Windows, 2021 saw a lot of hard work behind the scenes come to fruition for Xojo. In November, Xojo 2021r3 completed the transition to API 2.0 with the addition of a new set of Desktop controls. It’s a truth of technology that we must constantly push forward to avoid being left behind. While the transition to API 2.0 was at times difficult, as transitions can so often be, it brings the APIs of Desktop, Web and Mobile closer together, making developing with Xojo far easier for users overall.
Xojo recently shipped the first pre-release supporting Android. We appreciate your enthusiasm as well as the dedication so many have shown to testing it. We will continue fixing the bugs you report and releasing updates until it’s ready for general release.
I don’t have to tell you that the pandemic has resulted in most large, in-person events being cancelled. Last year we scheduled the Xojo Developer Conference for March in Nashville. That had to be cancelled, of course, so we planned ahead for XDC in London in April 2021, then rescheduled for October, then March 2022 only to have to cancel that too. We look forward to this conference every year, not only to see Xojo users, but also to see each other. The Xojo team is distributed across North America and Europe and while we see each other on Zoom (a lot), as we all know, it’s not the same as being together in-person. We anxiously await the eventuality of the pandemic subsiding and holding the Xojo Developer Conference. What a wonderful reunion it will be!
Throughout the year we continued to work closely with the Xojo MVPs. They provide us with a lot of great feedback and ideas from their own experience and expertise, as well as from the community. The MVPs were extremely helpful in 2021, testing parts of API 2.0, Android and discussing features and improvements, like changes to Feedback. We look forward to continuing to work with them in 2022, if they continue to put up with us. 😉
2021 really shined a light on the Xojo community! We were introduced to a few new guest bloggers on the Xojo Blog, plus multiple new YouTube Channels making videos for Xojo beginners and more. Thank you to all the creators out there talking about, teaching and sharing your experiences with Xojo! Word of mouth is always the best advertising since it comes with personal experience and we are very thankful for everyone who contributed to make the Xojo community a positive place for developers of all kinds. Follow @xojo on twitter to keep up with all the new creators and content!
This year we introduced the Xojo Educational license. This new license aims to empower educators of all kinds, whether they teach in traditional classrooms, adult education programs or clubs. We are ecstatic about the responses we’ve gotten from teachers from around the world! Xojo continues to participate in the GitHub Student Developer Pack which has resulted in thousands of young developers joining the Xojo community. We have heard of some interesting projects these students are doing such as building a college app, making a crypto currency blockchain system and more. We are excited to continue to offer resources to young developers and eager to see the creative ways they use Xojo!
We know you like the numbers so here are a few we are proud of this year. As of November 30th, Xojo license sales in 2021 are the highest they have been since Xojo was released in 2013. For those of you interested in more bug fixes, 61% more bugs were fixed in Xojo in 2021 than in 2020. We’ve learned that the vast majority of users are quite happy with Xojo. Our annual survey reflects that nearly 90% of users report they are “satisfied” with Xojo. As proof of that, the Xojo community really showed up to support us with the release of Xojo 2021r3 and the Android pre-release. In November, existing Xojo users renewed at nearly twice the rate projected!
We appreciate your continued support, it helps us to continue to push Xojo forward making it more functional, more reliable and easier to use than ever before. We’ve got a lot of exciting stuff in the works for 2022 and we look forward to sharing it with you. From all of us at Xojo, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season and a wonderful new year!