Driven by inspiration, new-age developers are finding their calling with Apple's ecosystem
Every app on your smartphone, tablet, or computer is the result of an idea that cropped up in the mind of a developer who wanted to effect change. These moments of inspiration can stem from anywhere. Maybe someone wanted an application to help them share their photos or videos with the world. Or someone wanted to track the number of miles they were running on the track. It’s these moments that trigger that big idea. But again, it’s not just about the idea, is it?
Even after the completion of the app, you still need an efficient developer community and a supportive ecosystem that can help you take your idea to millions of people who share your vision and need your product.
India Today had the opportunity to interact with a talented bunch of developers who have created products for the Apple ecosystem. From the inception to making the product available to millions of users, we spoke to them about their journey and how Apple has played a pivotal role in getting these products to the masses.
Inspiring Innovation
Apple just wrapped up its annual Swift Student Challenge, a platform that recognises and rewards some of the brightest developers from across the globe. In 2022, Arima Jain from Madhya Pradesh was chosen as the winner of the challenge and today, she is the co-founder of Lil Artist, a children’s learning and educational platform. She was in class 11th at that time.
“Winning the challenge further fuelled my interest and passion for Apple technologies.” – Ariman Jain, co-founder, Lil Artist.
The idea for the app came to her during the COVID-19 pandemic when people turned to online apps for educational purposes.
“We observed an increase in children’s screen time after the COVID-19 pandemic. But, we noticed they weren’t gaining much value out of it. So, we decided to create something enjoyable yet educational and that’s when we came up with Lil Artist.”, said Arima Jain, co-founder, Lil Artist.
Lil Artist App on the iPhone
Lil Artist offers unique activities like maths games, drawing, and gamified versions of various educational games to help children between 2â7 years learn the basics of language and maths in a fun and interactive way. During the development process, Arima received backend support from Apple, like when she wanted to add the AR feature within the app. The feature is now used in many of the games on the app.
This synergy between the Apple developer community and Lil Artist has helped the app evolve to become one of the top children’s learning apps on the App Store.
Another interesting conversation we had was with the developers of the Box Box app. This was my personal favourite due to my allegiance to Formula 1. The idea for Box Box was inspired by the fandom surrounding the sport of Formula 1. The developers wanted to bring to the users a “hyper-personalised” experience of F1.
Box Box app interface
The app provides a comprehensive dashboard for everything the sport has to offer. From race day information to player-specific stats, the app provides a customised dashboard with all the information, right on your iPhone, iPad or even the Watch screen.
“The official app of Formula 1 doesn’t allow you to follow your favourite driver or a team, so we wanted to create that hyper-personalised experience for the racing fan. Everything in the app is customised as per local time zones and no matter what age and preference of the user is, it can all be customised.”, Ranjith Ramanan, co-founder, Box Box.
Box Box provides widgets where you get lap time information and on which position your favourite driver is on the grid. As per Ranjith, this was possible only with the support of Apple’s developer community, which provided dynamic solutions to customise Box Box as per the iOS and iPadOS ecosystems.
“When iOS 16 was launched, there was a lock-screen widget concept that was introduced, and we launched a widget for that where, even without opening your phone or the app, you would be able to look at all the schedule, driver standing and more.”, said Ranjith.
While Ranjith handled most of the design elements of the app, his partner and co-founder Kamal Kumar Laxmanan was the brains behind improving the user experience. One can also see the laps completed on their Apple Watch via a unique gamified animation of an F1 car! This is an example of how there aren’t any boundaries when you have the opportunity and a compatible framework. It was delightful to learn that some of the current Formula 1 drivers are using the app.
“Even Charles Leclerc is using our app. There are a bunch of other F1 teams who are also using our app.”, Kamal elaborated while speaking about the app.
While the app doesn’t use official driver images or licenced properties, it has forged a partnership with Formula 2 drivers which lends an opportunity to connect with a wider audience. As a comprehensive F1 dashboard, I feel it is better than what the official F1 app offers. If Box Box acquires these licences in the future, it will be able to amass a larger user base, especially in the Formula 1 hosting nations.
We also caught up with Pritesh, the founder of Gratitude, a mobile app. An unfortunate series of events in Pritesh’s life led to him falling upon the idea of creating an application where people could be grateful for the things that they have in life.
Gratitude app interface
“Something that I started to help myself, has not reached more than 5 million people around the world. 80 percent of them are from the US, Canada and Europe. We have a solid 4.9-star rating.” – Pritesh, Founder, Gratitude.
The Gratitude app has been able to help millions of users across the globe record activities and moments throughout the day that they are grateful for. This could be as simple as clicking a picture of your meal and posting it on the app. The app also gives an option to write a journal and record your day’s activities.
Pritesh has provided the app’s interface across the Apple ecosystem. This way, users can also record voice notes using the Apple Watch and have an audio record of the day’s activities which seamlessly syncs with the app’s dashboard on multiple Apple devices. This enables developers to create innovative tools so that their users have more ways to interact with the ecosystem without having to worry about switching devices.
Evolution driven by expansion
While it was inspiring to hear from different creators from around India, it also gave a sense of how the Indian developer community understands the needs of the global market and isn’t restricted to India for creating tools for a global audience. Apple provides a platform that’s immune to piracy, an opportunity to operate from any part of the world, and a suite of developer tools that give everyone a level playing field to operate.
This has also helped the developer community in India thrive, and we can expect such unique innovations in the future. Needless to say, app developers are the backbone of an ever-expanding industry, and only with the support of the larger community and companies like Apple, are they able to navigate some of the tougher challenges in developing innovative products.
“We’re continuing to expand our channels, and also working on the developer ecosystem as well. And we’ve been very pleased that there is a rapidly growing base of developers there. And so, we’re working all of the entire ecosystem from developer to the market to operations, the whole thing. And I just — I could not be more excited and enthusiastic about it.” – Tim Cook, Apple CEO
With the advent of artificial intelligence and new technologies, the developer ecosystem will have its hands full in the coming year. Apple is set to host the Worldwide Developer’s Conference this year in June, where it showcases some of the latest updates coming to its operating system across devices.
The company also invites some of the top developers from across the world at the mega event to showcase their products. With the Cupertino tech giant preparing for the launch of its new devices later this year, it will be interesting to see how the company and the developer ecosystem react to the rapidly changing demands of consumers.
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