At the D11 Conference, Tim Cook did hint at Apple’s mobile platform, iOS, becoming more open for developers on a system level, allowing keyboards, lock-screens and other features to be changed by third party developers.
TouchType, the creators of SwiftKey, believe it could be a possibility and is very excited for WWDC this year. The development house is in charge of the most successful system level app on Android in 38 countries and want the other 25% of the smartphone market.
Having system level experiences changed around on iOS would feel very weird, especially considering Apple’s end-to-end user integration motto. Perhaps under Cook, the company is prepared to sacrifice a little for good results.
Android is currently ahead in the smartphone war by a large percentage, although on terms of smartphone sales the iPhone normally hits top marks, with only the Samsung Galaxy S line able to keep up with their sales.
Perhaps opening up the API to developers will be the start of some really unique experiences on iOS, Cook did retort they would not allow any API change that jeopardises the experience for the user, so some system level features may still be locked.
We have heard in the past few years the question of software openness. Even if Apple wants to wall off the user and make their products closed, they should allow third party software and even system level software to be changed, depending on the user.
This was one reason iAds was not as successful as it could’ve been, the ads were to inclosed in Apple’s ecosystem and the placement of ads was to regulated by Apple, while developers wanted to change it up slightly.
We could be seeing the start of a more open Apple, but we doubt it is going to be one big switch. iOS7 may be a new, flat, well designed and opener mobile operating system, but it will still be monitored very closely by Apple.
