Developing Perspective

00:00:00 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to Developing Perspective. Developing Perspective is a podcast discussing

00:00:04 ◼   ► news of note, development, Apple, and the like. I'm your host, David Smith. I'm an independent

00:00:08 ◼   ► iOS and Mac developer based in Virginia. This is show number 130. Today is Friday, June

00:00:14 ◼   ► 14th, 2013. Developing Perspective is never longer than 15 minutes. So let's get started.

00:00:19 ◼   ► All right, so I'm wrapping up my week here in San Francisco for WWDC. I'll be leaving

00:00:24 ◼   ► this morning to go back. But in the meantime, I thought it'd be interesting thing to kind

00:00:29 ◼   ► of bookend the show I did on Monday, where I had my first impressions about WWDC with

00:00:33 ◼   ► some of my last impressions about DC, WWDC and really want to see more things they've

00:00:39 ◼   ► been announcing things that I really can't talk about in terms of NDA stuff, the things

00:00:43 ◼   ► that I can probably give some high level impressions on and hopefully give you give you give some

00:00:47 ◼   ► context and help people kind of try and navigate and kind of sort out all the things that are

00:00:51 ◼   ► were announced this week. Apologies for my voice as you'd expect being at WWDC all week

00:00:55 ◼   ► I've had spent a lot of time in loud places yelling loudly. So yeah, it's like more raspy voice, but just bear with me

00:01:01 ◼   ► But generally yeah, so the first high-level impression I have about WWDC this year is that it feels very

00:01:09 ◼   ► Aggressive very

00:01:12 ◼   ► Ambitious maybe is even a better word that I think Apple is really coming out this year and and saying you know what we are gonna

00:01:20 ◼   ► do all kinds of things on lots of different fronts and really ensure that everyone knows that nope,

00:01:26 ◼   ► we're still the king of the mound.

00:01:29 ◼   ► Nobody can do it this way that we do. We'll do a lot of different things. We'll improve the user's experience.

00:01:33 ◼   ► We'll radically change a lot of stuff in iOS especially.

00:01:37 ◼   ► But generally speaking, we're gonna do things that only we can do and that we're gonna really execute hard on that.

00:01:44 ◼   ► Now as a developer who makes their money for who makes their living from the platform or someone who just wants to

00:01:50 ◼   ► do things on the platform, that's good and bad.

00:01:53 ◼   ► I think Apple is coming out and doing these,

00:01:55 ◼   ► there's a lot of change, a lot of work.

00:01:57 ◼   ► There's a lot of movement in this right now.

00:01:59 ◼   ► And that certainly creates some sense of

00:02:01 ◼   ► maybe Vegas anxiety for me in terms of,

00:02:04 ◼   ► anytime there's radical sweeping, whole cloth changes

00:02:07 ◼   ► to a lot of significant things,

00:02:09 ◼   ► that's always a risky thing.

00:02:12 ◼   ► It may not necessarily be risky in a broad sense.

00:02:15 ◼   ► I think overall, I was really very successful.

00:02:17 ◼   ► All the changes are very positive.

00:02:18 ◼   ► I think most users will get used to them very quickly

00:02:22 ◼   ► and then appreciate the enhancements

00:02:23 ◼   ► that they're getting as a result.

00:02:24 ◼   ► But the reality is there is certainly a slight bit

00:02:28 ◼   ► of anxiety that'll come out of that,

00:02:29 ◼   ► where all of a sudden, instead of having the stability

00:02:33 ◼   ► of the last six, seven years, things are up in the air.

00:02:36 ◼   ► And that's good, I think, I think especially for people

00:02:40 ◼   ► who are interested and willing to get into,

00:02:42 ◼   ► to engage with that and really try and sort of get

00:02:45 ◼   ► on the bus, drink the Kool-Aid and just go for it.

00:02:47 ◼   ► I think there's a lot of opportunity.

00:02:49 ◼   ► I think, and I'll talk about that mostly

00:02:50 ◼   ► towards the end of the show.

00:02:51 ◼   ► But generally speaking, it's just great to see

00:02:53 ◼   ► that they are not resting on their laurels,

00:02:55 ◼   ► they're not taking it easy in any way.

00:02:57 ◼   ► They are really executing at a high level,

00:02:59 ◼   ► and as a result, I think the developers

00:03:02 ◼   ► will have a really interesting next three or four months.

00:03:06 ◼   ► Couple of things that I just wanted to point out

00:03:08 ◼   ► that are slightly more tangential.

00:03:10 ◼   ► Apple, in addition to all the hardware stuff,

00:03:12 ◼   ► or sorry, all the software stuff,

00:03:14 ◼   ► the OS level things, iOS and macOS,

00:03:16 ◼   ► They're also doing a bunch of changes to just policy and improvements to iTunes Connect.

00:03:23 ◼   ► The most specific one I think I've seen widely reported is the app transfer program, which

00:03:27 ◼   ► is an excellent thing that I'm very glad to see Apple doing, where it's possible now to

00:03:31 ◼   ► transfer applications between developer accounts.

00:03:34 ◼   ► That's one of those things that I think allows applications to finally be somewhat more commoditized

00:03:41 ◼   ► in a good way, in that before it was very complicated to transfer an application should

00:03:46 ◼   ► it be acquired? Should it be, um, you know, should someone for whatever reason, when a

00:03:51 ◼   ► cell says, sell an app to someone else. And that is now something that is much more easy,

00:03:55 ◼   ► much more possible. Um, this is, you know, still some things that they're not quite there

00:03:58 ◼   ► yet, but they're definitely heading in that direction. And that is a big win and it makes

00:04:02 ◼   ► me very happy. And not a lot of largely just because I think as a developer who makes,

00:04:08 ◼   ► they're living for making apps, it is good when the thing that you make, you have the

00:04:11 ◼   ► much more flexibility and leverage on how you're rewarded for that, for creating that

00:04:15 ◼   ► thing in the first place. And if the only way you can make money is from putting ads

00:04:18 ◼   ► in a putting ads in it, or selling it or selling directly to customers or selling in app purchases.

00:04:24 ◼   ► There are some limitations on exactly how far you can go with that. And that's I'm glad

00:04:27 ◼   ► to see that you can now potentially, if you create something, and especially I think there's

00:04:32 ◼   ► a lot of this level, a lot a lot of implications for older backup catalog kind of applications,

00:04:36 ◼   ► things that I have a couple of these, where I think with the right with the right owner,

00:04:40 ◼   ► could be very successful or they could be very significant. But for the normal, you

00:04:46 ◼   ► know, it's like for the right owner, they, they, who could really invest in it, that

00:04:49 ◼   ► would be useful. But for me, I just don't have time or energy or the ability to really

00:04:52 ◼   ► invest in it. And so it creates this weird tension for, hey, you know, it's not a great

00:04:55 ◼   ► experience for users. It's also not a great experience for me as a developer. So I'm excited

00:05:00 ◼   ► to see that. And there's a few other little things that changed in iTunes Connect that

00:05:03 ◼   ► I can't talk about, but you should definitely check out the iTunes Connect talk at WWDC

00:05:07 ◼   ► DDC and you'll think towards the end, especially, you'll be excited to see some of the things

00:05:10 ◼   ► they're finally allowing you to do.

00:05:12 ◼   ► All right, so I'm going to get into a little bit of iOS 7.

00:05:16 ◼   ► And specifically, I would say, in the most conversations that I had this week with developers,

00:05:21 ◼   ► especially iOS developers, there's a revolves around a lot of the concept of what am I going

00:05:26 ◼   ► to do?

00:05:27 ◼   ► It's, you know, there's a lot of work, there's a tremendous change, both aesthetically, functionally,

00:05:32 ◼   ► in terms of the way that you want the user experience to look on iOS 7.

00:05:36 ◼   ► And so what do you do with that?

00:05:37 ◼   ► The changes that they announced on Monday

00:05:39 ◼   ► and throughout the week, there are a lot of changes

00:05:42 ◼   ► that are going to be going into this.

00:05:43 ◼   ► There's a lot of work.

00:05:43 ◼   ► If you have an existing app, and if you have a new app,

00:05:46 ◼   ► in some ways you can take advantage of it.

00:05:48 ◼   ► But you still have these questions of compatibility,

00:05:52 ◼   ► about exactly how far you embrace that, that aesthetic,

00:05:55 ◼   ► that user interaction.

00:05:57 ◼   ► I had tons of conversations like this all week

00:05:59 ◼   ► with different developers.

00:06:01 ◼   ► I would say, generally speaking, I

00:06:04 ◼   ► think the theme that I'm going to try and push for in the

00:06:08 ◼   ► coming weeks, and I think will do serve most developers well,

00:06:11 ◼   ► is to understand that iOS seven is a discontinuity. It is not

00:06:15 ◼   ► simply the evolution of the the previous OS is in the way that a

00:06:19 ◼   ► lot of them were your iOS six was basically just an extension

00:06:22 ◼   ► of iOS five, iOS five was many ways just an extension of iOS

00:06:27 ◼   ► four. I was seven feels very discontinuous. It feels like

00:06:31 ◼   ► this is a new operating system that happens to share a lot of code and a lot of frameworks

00:06:38 ◼   ► with something else.

00:06:39 ◼   ► And I mean that mostly from the top down.

00:06:41 ◼   ► The bottom, there's a lot of great improvements that are done under the hood.

00:06:45 ◼   ► There's a lot of things I'm very, very excited about.

00:06:48 ◼   ► New APIs, new ways of doing things that I think will really help make apps feel much more responsive,

00:06:54 ◼   ► much more real-time and much more useful to users.

00:06:58 ◼   ► But the reality of that is, is you now, from about the middle up, the user interaction

00:07:05 ◼   ► model is changing dramatically.

00:07:07 ◼   ► And honestly, we only even know what it is for iPhone.

00:07:09 ◼   ► I don't think iPad, we've even really seen how they're going to change the UI, how they're

00:07:14 ◼   ► going to drive people in that way.

00:07:16 ◼   ► But the reality is, if because they're doing that, because it's such a whole cloth change,

00:07:21 ◼   ► all of your UI is probably going to have to be either rewritten or dramatically restructured

00:07:26 ◼   ► to feel good and native on that environment, unless you're completely customer ready.

00:07:32 ◼   ► The reality with because of that is that you're going to have this decision point of do you

00:07:39 ◼   ► want to try and support iOS 6 and have backwards compatibility and all those types of things,

00:07:45 ◼   ► while at the same point trying to embrace fully the promise and the opportunity of iOS

00:07:50 ◼   ► 7.

00:07:51 ◼   ► speaking, I don't think I don't think that that that 10 that

00:07:55 ◼   ► tension is going to resolve itself promise in a good way

00:07:59 ◼   ► from for a lot of developers. I think the effort it's going to

00:08:01 ◼   ► take to be on iOS six and iOS seven at the same time, in a

00:08:06 ◼   ► reasonable good customer facing way is going to be very

00:08:08 ◼   ► difficult. And so generally, I think, you know, we'll have to

00:08:12 ◼   ► see exactly how it is when I'm actually coding it when I

00:08:14 ◼   ► actually see how hard it is to support both platforms. I think

00:08:17 ◼   ► there's a very good chance that I'll be going iOS seven only

00:08:19 ◼   ► for a lot of my applications for a lot of the things that I

00:08:21 ◼   ► I do, it's just going to be easier and better for me to go there fairly off the bat.

00:08:28 ◼   ► The things that I'm doing that haven't been launched, there's a very good chance that

00:08:30 ◼   ► they'll either be launched as iOS 7 only this fall or designed to be iOS 7 only.

00:08:37 ◼   ► Maybe launch on iOS 6, but very quickly be adapted to iOS 7.

00:08:43 ◼   ► So obviously the tricky part of being iOS 7 only for a new app is that means that you

00:08:46 ◼   ► can't launch until some indeterminate time this fall.

00:08:49 ◼   ► But generally speaking, that's probably a platform that I think makes sense.

00:08:52 ◼   ► And I think coming at the development of, let's optimize for iOS 7, let's really embrace

00:08:57 ◼   ► this, and then let's see what it looks like on iOS 6.

00:08:59 ◼   ► Let's see if we can do a few kind of concession things there to make sure it isn't totally

00:09:05 ◼   ► broken.

00:09:06 ◼   ► It's going to be a much stronger position.

00:09:08 ◼   ► Obviously, your business needs, your environment, those types of things will change, and sort

00:09:12 ◼   ► of whether that makes sense or not for you.

00:09:15 ◼   ► But generally speaking, I think focusing on iOS 7, if you can go in iOS 7 only, is going

00:09:18 ◼   ► be a great opportunity. I think there's a lot of going to be a lot of upheaval and change

00:09:24 ◼   ► in that way. And I think be sort of anchoring yourself to the past, to a user base who is

00:09:31 ◼   ► necessarily going to be diminishing as a percentage of users is never is going to be sort of put

00:09:37 ◼   ► an anchor around your neck that you're going to be dragging around for a long time. And

00:09:42 ◼   ► so that's kind of my high level gut is that really try and embrace strongly and fully

00:09:47 ◼   ► the new stuff, and really look at it as saying, you know what?

00:09:50 ◼   ► I'm going to-- my users are going to be happier on iOS 7

00:09:57 ◼   ► if I'm really focused in-- rather than trying to split

00:09:59 ◼   ► my attention between both, if I'm really making sure

00:10:01 ◼   ► that it's really solid for them there.

00:10:03 ◼   ► I've heard a few things, but that's kind of the vibe

00:10:06 ◼   ► that I think would make sense for a lot of users.

00:10:08 ◼   ► Because I think you can-- I was looking at a published

00:10:10 ◼   ► article about this myself a couple weeks ago,

00:10:13 ◼   ► and I was looking at upgrade numbers.

00:10:15 ◼   ► And right now, I mean, for point releases of iOS 6, we're seeing 60% adoption of a point

00:10:21 ◼   ► release, you know, so 6.1.3, for example, give us just about 60% in just two weeks.

00:10:26 ◼   ► I don't know what iOS 7 adoption will be.

00:10:28 ◼   ► But if we're anything in that ballpark, and we're going to have new iPhones, new iPads,

00:10:31 ◼   ► all these things coming sort of this holiday season, you know, almost certainly they'll

00:10:34 ◼   ► be announced, you know, end of September, October, something like that.

00:10:37 ◼   ► And there's going to be tremendous, you know, the speed at which that that is going to happen,

00:10:42 ◼   ► it will be true will be rather impressive.

00:10:43 ◼   ► And I think that will behoove a lot of developers to just be on the front of that wave rather

00:10:48 ◼   ► than trying to catch up with it.

00:10:50 ◼   ► All right, I think that's it in kind of sort of my high-level impressions and thoughts

00:10:53 ◼   ► for WWDC.

00:10:54 ◼   ► I think, like I said, there's a lot of opportunity.

00:10:56 ◼   ► There's a lot of change.

00:10:58 ◼   ► I think trying to make sure that you're on the front of it will be a good opportunity,

00:11:01 ◼   ► will be sort of developers.

00:11:03 ◼   ► If you're someone who's been thinking about making an app, if you've been thinking that,

00:11:07 ◼   ► you know, I wanted to do an app, I don't have time, I don't have energy, I think this is

00:11:11 ◼   ► specific and I want to encourage you that this is a specifically

00:11:14 ◼   ► good opportunity to do that, that if you are have this idea

00:11:18 ◼   ► for an app, you iOS seven only, you launched in day one, you'll

00:11:22 ◼   ► have a rare opportunity to be distinctive to stand out and to

00:11:27 ◼   ► have an opportunity to potentially do well in the

00:11:29 ◼   ► store. That is something that hasn't happened in quite a while

00:11:33 ◼   ► since the App Store launched. And we had it when the App Store

00:11:35 ◼   ► launched in the iPad launched, I think there'll be another

00:11:38 ◼   ► discontinuity here where there's a much more upheaval where

00:11:41 ◼   ► with users in terms of exactly what they're going to do,

00:11:44 ◼   ► how they're going to settle down in this new paradigm,

00:11:46 ◼   ► in this new UI.

00:11:47 ◼   ► So if you've been thinking of an app that you want to do,

00:11:49 ◼   ► I think this is an excellent time to do it.

00:11:51 ◼   ► Try, get in there, and just start building something

00:11:54 ◼   ► and see what it's like.

00:11:55 ◼   ► Really get to know iOS 7.

00:11:57 ◼   ► You may really like it and be able to take advantage

00:11:59 ◼   ► of new technology or new frameworks

00:12:01 ◼   ► in a way that creates new possibilities that

00:12:03 ◼   ► don't exist before.

00:12:05 ◼   ► All right, that's it.

00:12:07 ◼   ► As always, if you have questions, comments, concerns,

00:12:09 ◼   ► or complaints, I'm on Twitter @_davidsmith.

00:12:11 ◼   ► I'm on appnet@davidsmith.

00:12:14 ◼   ► If you want to reach me via email,

00:12:16 ◼   ► I'm david@developingperspective.com.

00:12:18 ◼   ► Otherwise, I'm not sure if I'll do a show next week.

00:12:20 ◼   ► I'm going to be traveling a bit with my family.

00:12:22 ◼   ► But otherwise, I'll be back with some vague NDA-neutered

00:12:26 ◼   ► discussion, I suppose, or working through the keynote

00:12:29 ◼   ► and kind of seeing if there's things that I can talk about.

00:12:31 ◼   ► We'll be in kind of a funny phase with iOS 7 NDA stuff,

00:12:35 ◼   ► because I can't talk about it until it launches this fall

00:12:39 ◼   ► for anything else that wasn't announced.

00:12:41 ◼   ► But generally, if you have questions or thoughts about what's going to be happening going forth

00:12:45 ◼   ► with this fall, if you have questions, definitely let me know.

00:12:48 ◼   ► I'll try and help it out.

00:12:49 ◼   ► I've been through a couple of these.

00:12:51 ◼   ► And so hopefully I can give some context, give some useful advice for people engaging

00:12:57 ◼   ► into it.

00:12:58 ◼   ► But otherwise, have a good weekend.

00:12:59 ◼   ► Happy coding.

00:13:00 ◼   ► I'll talk to you later.

00:13:01 ◼   ► Bye.

00:13:01 ◼   ► Bye.