Who would've thought! Apple opens up, and turns its core features into platforms

By Abhishek Baxi

Apple showcased its usual shiz at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, however, the tentpole for the event announcements was a paradigm shift with a word that’s not often heard in Cupertino - openness. Apple’s taking a calculated risk, an aberration from its closed-wall approach traditionally, opening up its core functions to developers presenting them an opportunity to create new set of services and allow Apple to find new line of business models with these core services as platforms in their own right.

Developers have had a love-hate relationship with Apple. While the platform gives them the revenue dollars, the limited integration makes it difficult to innovate to take apps to next levels of user experience and extensibility. For example, while for most part, most apps used to come to iOS first, some apps that target certain core functionalities, are Android-only.

Not ‘New’ and ‘Revolutionary’ As much as Apple would like us to believe, this isn’t a radical approach. It’s mainstream across platforms, and makes for a thriving ecosystem of developer-led products and services. That precisely was Bill Gates’s vision of personal computing as Microsoft built and led the developer ecosystem since the first IBM PCs.

Windows, for all its existence (albeit the limited Windows phone tryst) thrives on developers plugging into system APIs and extending system services and capabilities. Windows 10 allows developers to integrate core features like Cortana, Windows Ink, Maps, et al in their apps and building services on top of them.

Android too piggybacked on its openness to gain developer and subsequently consumer interest. The most-open-of-all platform along with open and extensible Google services that one could plug into is a developer’s candy land.

Services as Platforms The company has now decided to open its core services to developers. There’s of course, the crown jewel, Siri, as well as Maps and iMessage.

Apple introduced Siri five years ago, but ended up squaring its lead in the digital assistant space. The skill-set was limited and Apple’s strong stance on privacy prevents it to gain insights from user information and activity on an ongoing basis.

However, Siri owns the most valuable real estate in technology business. Available across the spectrum of Apple devices aided by the fact that Apple users spend far more than Android smartphone users, apps and services that integrate Siri for voice commands and simple transactions can give it a big edge.

Apple Maps offer a greenfield of opportunity for context-aware apps and services, and offer the highest intent-to-pay amongst any context signal.

The last one is a tricky bet. While Apple has opened up iMessage as a platform (stickers for quick, casual commerce!) demoing personalisation and enhancement features that put it in the Snapchat and WeChat category. However, unlike what was rumored, Apple hasn’t brought iMessage to Android. The lack of cross-platform intent might dent developer interest.

Catch-up The WWDC this year was mostly Apple catching up with what other rivals are betting on as next big computing paradigms. Apple also showcased its investments in artificial intelligence and deep learning in hope to counter stiffening competition from Google and Facebook.

At BUILD this year, Microsoft announced the chat bot framework for apps and services plugged into Skype. Facebook too is positioning Messenger as a hub for char bots for business. Unlike Siri, Amazon Echo plugs into over 1000 third-party services offering users a broader spectrum of services and capabilities.

The dramatic shift in company’s approach is not without potential dangers though. A Google or Amazon could, for example, hook into fundamental functions of Apple’s operating systems taking users and revenue transactions away.

Onwards, ahoy! With sluggish sales and a change in computing landscape, it was required from Apple to innovate on products and services as well as alter ecosystem strategy. For the moment, the company has chosen the latter and would now expect developers to tap into Apple’s key strengths and spur a round of innovation for the next wave of apps and services.