Rival apps could obtain more screen time on iPhones as Apple Inc. is considering opening access of certain apps to third-party services. Customer will be able to use the iPad and the HomePod speaker to enjoy music services provided by parties other than Apple, a decision that comes after criticism that the company provides an unfair advantage to its in-house products.

Rival apps could obtain more screen time on iPhones as Apple Inc. is considering opening access of certain apps to third-party services. Customer will be able to use the iPad and the HomePod speaker to enjoy music services provided by parties other than Apple, a decision that comes after criticism that the company provides an unfair advantage to its in-house products. The technology giant is deliberating whether to allow users the choice between a third-party web browser and mail applications as their default options on Apple’s mobile device, which would replace the company's Safari browser and Mail app. Apple has not allowed its users to replace pre-installed apps such as these with third-party services ever since its inception in 2008. This has created obstacles for competition between developers and has raised concerns from lawmakers who seem eager to probe antitrust violations in the technology industry. Also Read: EU lawmakers, with eye on Apple, call for common mobile charger Two of the most-used apps on the iPhone and iPad are the web browser and mail, and rival apps such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Gmail and Microsoft Outlook have been locked out of this niche. Currently, users are automatically sent to Apple's web browser Safari or Apple Mail whenever they receive an email or the link to a website. No option to switch to another email program is provided by the company. The closed system which prohibits users from setting third-party apps as defaults were questioned during a hearing of a US House of Representatives antitrust panel. To have a default app on the world’s best-selling smartphone is valuable because consumers are subtly coaxed and prodded into using this more-established software rather than alternatives. Tethering users to Apple’s services is important to the company as the growth of smartphone demand slows and sales of music, video, cloud storage and other subscriptions make up a greater share of the iPhone maker’s total revenue. 38 default apps on iPhones and iPads are currently installed by the company, including the Safari web browser, Maps, Messages and Mail. [ Logo of Apple Inc. (Courtesy: Reuters) ] Apple was accused in 2019 by Stockholm-based Spotify, which submitted an antitrust complaint to the European Union saying that Apple squeezes rival services by imposing a 30 per cent cut for subscriptions made via the App Store. Apple defended its position by arguing that Spotify wants the benefits of the App Store without paying for them. To support its claims, Spotify singled out the inability to run on the HomePod and become the default music player in Siri, Apple’s voice-activated digital assistant. Also Read: Apple's iPhone sales in China up 18 per cent in December: Report Apple is reportedly working on permitting third-party music services to run directly on the HomePod. third-party music apps will be able to stream from an iPhone or iPad to the HomePod via Apple’s AirPlay technology. Given that the HomePod has not been performing at par with its rivals such as the Amazon Echo in functionality, opening the product to additional music service may be a boon. Another matter reportedly being deliberated at Apple is whether to let users set competing for music services as the default with Siri on iPhones and iPads. Presently, Apple Music is the default music app, and if the company changes the arrangement a user would be able to play music from Spotify or Pandora automatically when asking Siri for a song. Final decisions on these matters are yet to be made and potential changes to third-party apps on Apple’s devices and the HomePod are reportedly still under discussion or in early stages of development. If Apple decides to commit to this decision, they could reportedly appear as soon as later this year via the upcoming iOS 14 software update and a corresponding HomePod software update. new iPhone and iPad software versions are announced by Apple in June and released in September around the launch of new models for the iPhone. Apple is planning to focus on performance and quality for this year’s update as the current version, iOS 13, has been riddled with bugs that upset some users.

Third-party apps to get more screen time on Apple products after criticism

Apple Inc announced a series of long-awaited enhancements to its App Store on Wednesday, but the new features may not ease concerns of developers and analysts who say that the App Store model - and the very idea of the single-purpose app - has seen its best days. 
 
The revamped App Store will let developers advertise their wares in search results and give developers a bigger cut of revenues on subscription apps, while Apple said it has already dramatically sped up its app-approval process. 
The goal is to sustain the virtuous cycle at the heart of the hugely lucrative iPhone&nbsp;business. Software developers make apps for the iPhone because its customers are willing to pay, and those customers, in turn, pay a premium for the device because it has the best apps. 
 
The store is now more strategically important than ever for Apple as sales of the iPhone begin to level off and the company looks to software and services to fill the gap. Apple CEO Tim Cook said during&nbsp;a recent conference call&nbsp;that App Store revenues were up 35 per cent over last year. 
 
But the store is also a victim of its own success. Eight years after its launch, it is packed with more than 1.9 million apps, according to analytics firm App Annie, making it almost impossible for developers to find an audience - and increasingly difficult for customers to find what they need, as some 14,000 new apps arrive in the store each week. 
 
&quot;The app space has grown out of control,&quot; said Vint Cerf, one of the inventors of the internet and now a vice president at Alphabet Inc&#39;s Google, who was speaking at a San Francisco conference on the future of the web on Wednesday. &quot;We need to move away from having an individual app for every individual thing you want to do.&quot; 
 
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 
Some users are moving away from apps toward messaging services such as Slack and Facebook Inc&#39;s Messenger, which are branching out into areas like shopping and document storage. 
 
Meanwhile, rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to a world where people navigate their phones through voice-controlled digital assistants such as Apple&#39;s Siri, rather than opening individual apps. 
 
To be sure, chat and AI are in their infancy, and their appeal to the masses remains uncertain. But if they take off, they could erase the edge Apple enjoys by virtue of its strong app ecosystem and tip the scales toward Google, which is widely considered to have the lead in AI. 
 
&quot;The current dynamic is very favorable to Apple, and this is a suggestion that we might shift to a different dynamic where Google would have a very strong advantage,&quot; said Benedict Evans, a partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. 
 
&quot;No matter what you do to an app store, you always have that underlying problem: It&#39;s a list of a million things,&quot; Evans&nbsp;added. 
 
Apple may yet find ways to wield AI to reinforce the App Store. The company has already woven more intelligence into its operating system, which now prompts iPhone users to open certain apps during the day based on their habits. 
 
DEVELOPER GRIPES 
On a more basic level, the changes announced this week address some of the loudest complaints from developers, who say it is virtually impossible to stand out in an app landscape dominated by hit games, big media companies and internet giants such as Facebook and Google. 
 
Statistics from Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm, show a stark and widening divide between top earners and low performers in the App Store. 
 
The top one&nbsp;per cent of app publishers raked in about 94 per cent of the store&#39;s estimated $1.43 billion net revenue in the first quarter of 2016. The gulf has expanded rapidly since July 2012, the first month for which Sensor Tower has data, when the top one&nbsp;per cent netted about 80 per cent of the revenue in the store, according to data provided to Reuters. The figures cover paid apps and apps that include in-app purchases. 
 
Some developers who carved out a niche early say they doubt success would come so easily today. 
 
&quot;Now the challenge for developers is, if there&#39;s an app for everything, how will you create an app people will use?&quot; said Lucas Buick, who founded Hipstamatic, a photography app that was an early hit in the App Store. 
 
TOO LATE? 
David Barnard, founder of Contrast, an app development company, applauded the new focus on subscriptions, which he said would encourage developers to invest in their apps. But getting attention in the store remains a challenge. 
 
&quot;It&#39;s not like they fixed everything in one fell swoop,&quot; Barnard said. 
 
Pete Zed, a 33-year-old Oakland, California developer, thought he had a hit on his hands when reminder app Bump was featured by Apple in January 2015, inspiring thousands of users to install the programme. But as soon as the promotion ended, downloads dropped. Zed discontinued the service this year. 
 
Some developers are banking on the next wave of user interfaces. 
 
In 2014, developer Eswar Priyadarshan founded Tasteful, which aims to guide users with various diets to healthy restaurant dishes through its app. Tasteful&#39;s audience, though loyal, is too niche to vault it up the App Store charts, Priyadarshan said. 
 
In a bid to lessen his dependence on the App Store, he recently made Tasteful available on chat platforms such as Messenger and Slack. 
 
&quot;It has been difficult to get the kind of growth we need to sustain an app&nbsp;business,&quot; Priyadarshan said. 
 
Analyst Bob O&#39;Donnell of TECHnalysis Research said he doubted the changes will do much to move the needle for small developers. 
 
&quot;At the end of the day I&rsquo;m not sure how much real-world impact it&rsquo;s going to end up having for a lot of these apps,&quot; he said. 
&nbsp;

It already has 1.9 million apps, making it impossible for app builders to find an audience and customers to find what they want

Apple Inc announced a series of long-awaited enhancements to its App Store on Wednesday, but the new features may not ease concerns of developers and analysts who say that the App Store model - and the very idea of the single-purpose app - has seen its best days. The revamped App Store will let developers advertise their wares in search results and give developers a bigger cut of revenues on subscription apps, while Apple said it has already dramatically sped up its app-approval process. The goal is to sustain the virtuous cycle at the heart of the hugely lucrative iPhone business. Software developers make apps for the iPhone because its customers are willing to pay, and those customers, in turn, pay a premium for the device because it has the best apps. The store is now more strategically important than ever for Apple as sales of the iPhone begin to level off and the company looks to software and services to fill the gap. Apple CEO Tim Cook said during a recent conference call that App Store revenues were up 35 per cent over last year. But the store is also a victim of its own success. Eight years after its launch, it is packed with more than 1.9 million apps, according to analytics firm App Annie, making it almost impossible for developers to find an audience - and increasingly difficult for customers to find what they need, as some 14,000 new apps arrive in the store each week. "The app space has grown out of control," said Vint Cerf, one of the inventors of the internet and now a vice president at Alphabet Inc's Google, who was speaking at a San Francisco conference on the future of the web on Wednesday. "We need to move away from having an individual app for every individual thing you want to do." ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Some users are moving away from apps toward messaging services such as Slack and Facebook Inc's Messenger, which are branching out into areas like shopping and document storage. Meanwhile, rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to a world where people navigate their phones through voice-controlled digital assistants such as Apple's Siri, rather than opening individual apps. To be sure, chat and AI are in their infancy, and their appeal to the masses remains uncertain. But if they take off, they could erase the edge Apple enjoys by virtue of its strong app ecosystem and tip the scales toward Google, which is widely considered to have the lead in AI. "The current dynamic is very favorable to Apple, and this is a suggestion that we might shift to a different dynamic where Google would have a very strong advantage," said Benedict Evans, a partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. "No matter what you do to an app store, you always have that underlying problem: It's a list of a million things," Evans added. Apple may yet find ways to wield AI to reinforce the App Store. The company has already woven more intelligence into its operating system, which now prompts iPhone users to open certain apps during the day based on their habits. DEVELOPER GRIPES On a more basic level, the changes announced this week address some of the loudest complaints from developers, who say it is virtually impossible to stand out in an app landscape dominated by hit games, big media companies and internet giants such as Facebook and Google. Statistics from Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm, show a stark and widening divide between top earners and low performers in the App Store. The top one per cent of app publishers raked in about 94 per cent of the store's estimated $1.43 billion net revenue in the first quarter of 2016. The gulf has expanded rapidly since July 2012, the first month for which Sensor Tower has data, when the top one per cent netted about 80 per cent of the revenue in the store, according to data provided to Reuters. The figures cover paid apps and apps that include in-app purchases. Some developers who carved out a niche early say they doubt success would come so easily today. "Now the challenge for developers is, if there's an app for everything, how will you create an app people will use?" said Lucas Buick, who founded Hipstamatic, a photography app that was an early hit in the App Store. TOO LATE? David Barnard, founder of Contrast, an app development company, applauded the new focus on subscriptions, which he said would encourage developers to invest in their apps. But getting attention in the store remains a challenge. "It's not like they fixed everything in one fell swoop," Barnard said. Pete Zed, a 33-year-old Oakland, California developer, thought he had a hit on his hands when reminder app Bump was featured by Apple in January 2015, inspiring thousands of users to install the programme. But as soon as the promotion ended, downloads dropped. Zed discontinued the service this year. Some developers are banking on the next wave of user interfaces. In 2014, developer Eswar Priyadarshan founded Tasteful, which aims to guide users with various diets to healthy restaurant dishes through its app. Tasteful's audience, though loyal, is too niche to vault it up the App Store charts, Priyadarshan said. In a bid to lessen his dependence on the App Store, he recently made Tasteful available on chat platforms such as Messenger and Slack. "It has been difficult to get the kind of growth we need to sustain an app business," Priyadarshan said. Analyst Bob O'Donnell of TECHnalysis Research said he doubted the changes will do much to move the needle for small developers. "At the end of the day I’m not sure how much real-world impact it’s going to end up having for a lot of these apps," he said.

Revamped Apple App Store may not win over developers

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Third-party apps to get more screen time on Apple products after criticism

Revamped Apple App Store may not win over developers