I used to code. And when I say “code,” I mean write HTML, JavaScript and active server pages – not full desktop applications. This was close to a decade ago, and while I have taken some software development classes since, I haven’t used any coding skills in any meaningful way since then. It’s not that I don’t want to code, I just I don’t need to do so in my job. Additionally, and to be frank… I think software development is much harder than it should be, and the varying levels of quality in the software development tools out there doesn’t help.
That may soon change, dramatically, and this change may come from an unexpected place: Apple.
Last month a patent application from Apple for “content configuration for device platforms” detailed specifications for a basic WYSIWYG tool to build apps. Now, Apple patents a LOT of stuff, and many of their patents have historically ended up going nowhere… but I think this one isn’t such a case. I suspect that Apple is working to change how software for their platforms are created, to open up their platform to… well, everyone. It’s a huge shift in the traditional approach of working with software developers that aligns with both Apple’s history, it’s aesthetic, and it’s growth strategy.
Apple has a long history of taking complicated tasks and making them easy and obvious for customers. It started with desktop publishing, with Apple making the first consumer computers and printers that provided accurate typography and page layout tools (Apple didn’t create Pagemaker, the first successful desktop publishing app, but produced the first Macintosh that made such an app possible). Though it wasn’t there first, Apple produced software that made video editing accessible and easy, with Final Cut Pro and then iMovie. It created software to make producing DVDs as simple as dragging and dropping content (not used much now, but at the time iDVD was a very popular app for creating content). It made music production accessible to the masses through Garageband, multi-media presentations dead simple with Keynote… And so on and so forth, with the most recent effort, the iBook Author tool, focused on supporting the creation of multimedia eBooks.
Software development requires specialized knowledge that most people don’t have… just like like video editing and desktop publishing used to be. The eccentricities of a particular language, the processes of doing software builds, the specific functionality that exists in the development environment being used… all of this requires a learning curve, and for many people it’s a steep one that is discouraging and frustrating. Apple can remove a lot of this complexity by releasing a program exactly like the one they detail in their patent – an app that allows for simple object-oriented programming that lets users compile and run apps without having to know how to call APIs, create preference files and deal with stuff like memory managment and database calls.
Would this be a solution for the professional developer to use? Probably not. It would be like iMovie for apps… the pros can still use XCode or their preferred development environment to custom build their own apps. But just as iMovie has allowed people who have never heard of SMTPE timecodes to quickly edit a short movie together, an “iMovie for apps” would open up programming to the masses, allowing people who are intimidated by the prospect of coding the ability to creating simple apps they want and need with a minimal effort.
Such an app would also support Apple’s growth strategy. The more apps that are created and available, the more desirable it makes the devices that run them… devices that are all sold by Apple. Since Apple gets a cut of every app sold, the more apps in the marketplace the more money they make. And the “App maker” or whatever Apple calls it will only work on… yup, you guessed it, Apple hardware. Will many of the apps created by such a tool be… well, crap? Yup. But many of the apps available in the app store today aren’t very good as well… the quality apps will usually rise to the top.
Will Apple reject a huge number of apps submitted? Yes, but consider this: Apple can develop this new “App maker” program in a way that lets users distribut their own apps on an ad hoc basis… imagine if a small business could roll their own integrated inventory app for their staff? Apple might not make money off every app sold in such a scenario, but such a feature could motivate many companies to buy iPhones for all their employees… Which is a perfectly satisfactory result for Apple and thier growth strategy.
I may be reading too much into a patent application, but to me it makes sense that this is something Apple would do, for the reasons cited above and for one more thing: It would be a bold move, something that would differentiate Apple’s OS from Android and Windows in a huge way… especially if such an “App maker” allows users to create apps that work on ANY Apple device – Mac, iPad or iPhone. Apple has a history of making similar bold moves, and making them work. I can see no reason for that stopping now.