Apple's Pitch To Indian Developers: Think Local, Stay Up To Date, and Aim For Design Awards (ndtv.com) 35
An anonymous reader shares an article: With just under half-a-million registered Apple developers in the country, India is among the most active markets when it comes to making apps for Apple's platforms, but the iPhone-maker took its time before getting involved with the local ecosystem in a meaningful way. Things started to change earlier this year, when Apple setup App Accelerator - a first-of-its-kind initiative, in namma Bengaluru, India earlier this year. More than three months later, the company's efforts are starting to shape up. Gadgets 360 spoke to many developers who have signed up for the App Accelerator, and they are pleased with how things are going so far. Registration to the App Accelerator - which is capable of hosting 500 developers per week - as well as attending the sessions, is free and open to everyone. At the App Accelerator sessions, which range between two to four hours, "evangelists" from the company are getting developers up to speed with the newest technologies, and guiding them to improve their apps and make the best out of the available resources. Developers told Gadgets 360 they get to understand what new technologies Apple specifically recommends they target, with SiriKit being one such example. That's a big and helpful change, developers say, because Indian companies often take long time in leveraging new features Apple introduces. The most crucial advice that developers have walked out of the campus with, they tell Gadgets 360, has been to reconsider their target audience. The evangelists have told them to make apps that serve to the needs of the local market, instead of focusing their energies in chasing the Western audience.
Re:The neglected India (Score:4, Informative)
1. iPhones are not subsidized by the carrier
FTFY.
And knowing, as I do, what Indian carriers (are allowed to) charge, it's not hard to see why.
Four years ago I loaded my India phone with R500 (about $8) and only had to reload it for the first time earlier this year. Actually, I probably could have gone for another year on the remaining balance I had – about R70 – when I reloaded it.
I don't know about iPhone prices, but in my experience other Apple products in the Imagine stores are within one or two percent of the prices at the Apple stores here in the US.
Now if you want a Kitchenaid mixer, that'll run you nearly double what it costs here in the US.
Re: The neglected India (Score:1)
Peak App (Score:2)
I get the impression that a lot of people at Apple (well, okay, not just Apple) believe that there is a never-ending supply of app ideas that just need to be mined, refined, developed and sold, and that this will never change. What other app ideas can possibly be left? There would be new apps to take advantage of new hardware, but wouldn't the development of that hardware come first? Why aren't they encouraging people to enter that field instead of joining the millions who are already churning out appy app
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$100 year i meant, didn't proof read, been coding all night.
How's that angry birds / candy crush mashup / clone / reboot coming along, then?
Re: (Score:2)
Every app developer pays $100 month for what essentially costs Apple pennies. If they can get 500,000 Indian dudes to sign up as developers, that's some decent revenue...
agreed, but how long will 500,000 Indian appy app app app (Jesus, I have to stay away from that word, it's dangerous) coders will pay $100 a month to stay in a field that's saturated and unprofitable for them? It's like the real estate marketing market - not the sale of houses, but the training and licensing of people who sell houses. That market is so saturated, I'm expecting to see them crystallize into a higher form of life.
So Apple will make some quick cash until their pigeons catch on, and by then, hop
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"everything that can be invented has been invented."
- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner of US patent office, 1899.
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"everything that can be invented has been invented." - Charles H. Duell, Commissioner of US patent office, 1899.
Cool.
What's your killer app idea? How about an app that tracks other apps? Wait, that's been done...
Apple does not lead in India (Score:3)
Middle class Indians just do not have a few lazy hundred dollars to spend. (The rich certainly do, but not the middle.) In the west, you need an iPhone because your friends all use iMessage, and it would not be cool to be without. Not so India.
Hence the Apple attempt to focus Indians on the local market, which Apple wishes to enter more fully. But I suspect the money for Indian developers is still in the west.
Re:Apple does not lead in India (Score:4, Insightful)
You apparently don't know many actual iPhone users.
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Most people don't use iMessage.
They use plain SMS, WhatsApp, Viber, KiK, Telegram, Skype, Threema etc. in no particular order.
Re: Apple does not lead in India (Score:3)
Most iPhone users have no idea any of those exist. They click on the Messages icon and then send their message. That message defaults to iMessage if the recipient has an Apple device and drops back to SMS if not. There is no way any other messaging platform comes close.
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No, it does not default to 'iMessenger', the default is SMS.
You have to activate internet usage aka iMessenger to useit.
Hint: most iPhone users do not live in the USA.
Hint, Nr. 2: every iPhone user has Android friends.
So: guess what they use to chat with those?
Hint Nr. 3: it is not iMessenger.
"Are You Registered?" (Score:1)
It is important to be registered if you are going to be a developer in the Apple ecosystem. It isn't enough to put out good code and quality software products. Ultimately you need to work completely within the boundaries of the Walled Garden. Where the Apple organization can shepherd your efforts and make sure you are one of their people.
Apple is sort of creepy that way.