After WWDC 2014

It’s a great time to be an iOS developer. 

WWDC has ended, but the real work starts now. It seems Apple decided this was the year they’d make all of its platform’s developers dreams come true. A massive amount of new APIs that not only allow existing apps to get even better, but that enable whole new categories of apps that previously were not possible. On top of that, there’s Swift an all new programming language. As such, there’s a lot of work to be done, in a good way.

Extensions will bring applications the ability to customise user experiences across iOS and OS X while at the same time collaborating with other apps. Continuity will allow apps to provide their users with the ability to seamlessly transition between devices, taking their current task from one context to another with ease. iCloud drive and document sharing features will bring great data sharing between apps without giving up on the sandboxing model that helps make iOS secure.

But all of this is just the beginning. These are things we’ve long asked for, and the first wave of improvements to existing apps and new apps will aim at using the new APIs to solve problems we’ve all had and wanted to tackle for a while. But there is a whole new class of opportunities most of us aren’t even aware of right now. The great new apps of the coming years will come from those who see such opportunities and successfully execute on them.

If you’ve been developing for iOS for a while, but not long enough to have taken part on the early life of the App Store, you may feel you’ve missed the train. But with what has been announced this week, there are a lot of trains just about to leave their stations right now. There’s plenty of time to hop on one of them and reap the benefits.

This article was originally posted at My Own Thing, my own personal blog where I write and share about the things I make and stuff I care for.