There was a fair amount of speculation before WWDC as to whether iOS 7 was going to finally open its doors a little and let developers have a tinker with its inner workings, and maybe even enable some user customisation. After all, Tim Cook did say something to that effect when interviewed at AllthingsD a short while before the conference took place. During that interview it was implied that Apple had been looking at which way the world was going and have decided to start (emphasis on start) opening up iOS.
There were quite a few speculative articles on what this openess could warrant. Some were saying that it could mean Siri would be opened up to developers. Like an alienated girlfriend, Apple has been mostly ignoring her after the initial excitement of when she first appeared in their lives. But, continuing with the metaphor, they’re also jealously guarding her from anyone else having any influence on her life. Okay that’s probably enough of that before it gets too dark.
Developers have been wanting to use Siri integration in their apps for a while now, it’s a good selling point for an app and it has the potential to create a richer user experience. And, let’s be honest, Siri could use the publicity after Google has been slowly stealing the show with Google Now.
There was also talk of customisation options, of letting developers access and change things in the notification centre and perhaps finally the addition of widgets.
Well, going on what we saw at WWDC, I think we can sadly say that this is not happening.
iOS 7, for better or worse, is still a mostly closed system.
Of course Apple has never had any allusions towards the openess of Android. They prize a uniform end-user experience much higher than an open one, and that’s something that’s stood them in good stead. 600 million users can’t be wrong after all, and it’s not like developers are having a hard time on iOS, it’s still the most profitable place to have an app and many developers target it first in their development cycles.
The trouble is not how things are now though, it’s what could potentially be in the future. As mobile tech advances and more and more open source OS like Ubuntu, Firefox, Sailfish and Tizen all start making stronger inroads into the mobile market, Apple’s walled off garden is maybe going to start looking like a stale option to developers who are looking to expand their capabilities. Users are also becoming more and more tech capable (overall at least, there are still plenty out there who are not so much), and being restricted by Apple might start feeling like they’re using a “Fisher Price: My First Phone” rather than a fully fledged smartphone.
Whilst iOS 7 is looking very pretty, underneath it doesn’t seem like much has changed. Sounds very much like the iPhone 5 really… A lack of innovation can kill a company like Apple who have spent the last few years essentially only innovating. It’s, of course, too early to tell what the overall reaction to iOS 7 will be, that will have to wait until its release. Until then, all we can do is speculate and wonder what Cupertino’s next move will be.
