Apple recently announced an important strategic change in direction that's great news for developers. In their next SDK release, developers will be able to build a single app that will work on every iPhone, iPad, and Mac the company makes.
The benefits to developers are obvious, with the biggest being a general reduction of development time.
There will be no need to make three different variants of an app to cover the entire Apple ecosystem. It will also mean more potential customers if a development group has been focused on only one segment of that ecosystem.
The change will also give Apple a powerful advantage in that eventually, the company will be able to merge the Mac App Store and the App Store for iOS. That will reduce their digital footprint and make managing their vast holdings easier. In addition to that, it will streamline the approval process, allowing developers to submit a single binary for all Apple devices.
According to a statement recently published by the company, the new development kit could be pushed out by as early as June, which is generating a tremendous amount of excitement in the Apple development community.
Obviously, consumers will see a big win here as well. Once the changes are complete and the two app stores are merged, there will be a single official hub where Apple users can get all their favorite Apps. They won't even have to worry about cross-device compatibility, which will improve the overall user experience.
The bottom line is that it will make things easier for developers, make managing the process easier for Apple, simplify things, and improve the user experience for the legions of end users in Apple's ecosystem. Kudos to the company for making the move. Exciting changes are ahead!
