Which Apps Got Screwed By iOS 6?
Today’s keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference highlighted a number of fresh features that the company has added to its mobile operating system. And while a number of updates will make life lighter for users, there are also some fresh features that will challenge directly with developers who build for the iOS platform.
It’s always a tricky thing for developers, who seek to provide applications which add value on top of the mobile hardware and software that Apple has released. But as time goes on, more and more of the applications that developers build end up being substituted by features that Apple builds directly into its software. With the launch of iOS 6, here’s a list of apps and categories that could be affected by features Apple has added directly into the OS.
Turn-by-turn navigation apps
Given the yam-sized amount of work that Apple did to refine and upgrade its Maps application, this is very likely the most evident app category affected by the update. Google is the big loser, of course, since its maps were substituted by Apple’s own software. But there are a ton of maps applications that could be rendered obsolete, thanks mainly to the addition of turn-by-turn navigation.
The most evident app makers who will be affected are most likely Garmin and TomTom, famous leaders in the space that sell GPS-based navigation apps at a premium. Both have USA navigation apps priced at around $50 on the Apple App store today. Those companies were already feeling some pressure from smaller free apps, but it’s difficult to imagine anyone buying those apps once the iOS six update comes out and Apple’s Maps provides the same functionality for free.
But leave behind about the big guys: There are a number of startups and free apps that could also be hurt by an improved Maps app. Take Waze, for example: it suggested a free, turn-by-turn navigation app that was powered by crowdsourcing data from its users. There might still be some users who find this functionality a differentiator, but it’s a firmer sell when the Maps app comes free and pre-installed.
Payments and loyalty program apps
The introduction of Apple’s PassBook could be excellent for consumers, as it has the potential to permit them to aggregate all sorts of “passes” all in one place: That includes stuff like boarding passes, store cards, and movie tickets to embark, but there are all sorts of possibilities here to disrupt the larger mobile payments industry, as well as upend a entire bunch of smaller loyalty programs that are emerging on iOS.
There’s no shortage of loyalty apps out there — and in fact, one of the major problems with that industry is that today things are so fragmented that users never know which local merchant will support which app. Some players — like Square, with its Pay By Square app — have attempted to tie loyalty into their broader payment systems, which Apple seems unlikely to totally disrupt.
The other big issue is that Apple has to prove it can get developers and merchants on board and persuade them that they want proof of payments for movie tickets and airline boarding passes available all in the same app, as opposed to in their own individual apps. But if PassBook does gets traction, expect a entire bunch of standalone loyalty apps to fold.
Offline reading and bookmarking apps
When Apple introduced its Reader and Reading Lists in mobile Safari last year, a few people worried that the feature had the potential to disrupt mobile reader apps like Instapaper. Well, if that was part of Apple’s plan, the launch of offline reading lists in mobile Safari only menaces them even further.
The fresh offline reading lists will permit users to cache entire websites rather than just individual links. For users who have to date relied on Instapaper, Pocket, Spool, or other apps to save content for reading during their commutes or when not connected to the Internet, having the same native capability built into iOS could obviate the need for those apps.
Group and private photo-sharing apps
Apple’s announcement most likely won’t affect the larger group of social photo-sharing apps — the Instagrams of the world, or those where the name of the game is making your photos available to as many people as possible. But there are a growing number of apps which have emerged around the idea of private sharing — that is, specifying exactly which family members you send pictures of your child to, or permitting folks who go on vacation together to all have the same group of photos without uploading to Facebook.
Apple’s revamped photo flows will permit users to create groups of photos and instantly share them with other users, as well as permitting those users to make comments on them. That could pose a threat to app makers like 1000Memories and others. It could also do away with the use case for online storage services like Dropbox where users upload groups of photos into folders and share them with others.
Mobile movie talk apps
Prior to iOS 6, FaceTime only worked on Apple devices, and it only worked on Wi-Fi. Those two factors have led to a proliferation of mobile talk apps that competed directly with the movie talk functionality built directly into iOS, apps like Skype, Tango, and ooVoo, among others. Well, Apple worked to solve one of those issues, by permitting users to make FaceTime calls on cellular networks.
The addition of Wi-Fi calling is unlikely to make a hefty dent in the movie talk competition, in part because the main differentiator for those competitors is multiplatform capability — being able to make calls across iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac operating systems. But it might mean that users who would have switched to an app which does cellular movie calling might use FaceTime when dialing another friend with an iPhone — or they might do movie talk when they otherwise would have done voice.
Which Apps Got Screwed By iOS 6, TechCrunch
Which Apps Got Screwed By iOS 6?
Today’s keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference highlighted a number of fresh features that the company has added to its mobile operating system. And while a number of updates will make life lighter for users, there are also some fresh features that will rival directly with developers who build for the iOS platform.
It’s always a tricky thing for developers, who seek to provide applications which add value on top of the mobile hardware and software that Apple has released. But as time goes on, more and more of the applications that developers build end up being substituted by features that Apple builds directly into its software. With the launch of iOS 6, here’s a list of apps and categories that could be affected by features Apple has added directly into the OS.
Turn-by-turn navigation apps
Given the yam-sized amount of work that Apple did to refine and upgrade its Maps application, this is very likely the most evident app category affected by the update. Google is the big loser, of course, since its maps were substituted by Apple’s own software. But there are a ton of maps applications that could be rendered obsolete, thanks mainly to the addition of turn-by-turn navigation.
The most demonstrable app makers who will be affected are very likely Garmin and TomTom, famous leaders in the space that sell GPS-based navigation apps at a premium. Both have USA navigation apps priced at around $50 on the Apple App store today. Those companies were already feeling some pressure from smaller free apps, but it’s difficult to imagine anyone buying those apps once the iOS six update comes out and Apple’s Maps provides the same functionality for free.
But leave behind about the big guys: There are a number of startups and free apps that could also be hurt by an improved Maps app. Take Waze, for example: it suggested a free, turn-by-turn navigation app that was powered by crowdsourcing data from its users. There might still be some users who find this functionality a differentiator, but it’s a stiffer sell when the Maps app comes free and pre-installed.
Payments and loyalty program apps
The introduction of Apple’s PassBook could be good for consumers, as it has the potential to permit them to aggregate all sorts of “passes” all in one place: That includes stuff like boarding passes, store cards, and movie tickets to embark, but there are all sorts of possibilities here to disrupt the larger mobile payments industry, as well as upend a entire bunch of smaller loyalty programs that are emerging on iOS.
There’s no shortage of loyalty apps out there — and in fact, one of the major problems with that industry is that today things are so fragmented that users never know which local merchant will support which app. Some players — like Square, with its Pay By Square app — have attempted to tie loyalty into their broader payment systems, which Apple seems unlikely to totally disrupt.
The other big issue is that Apple has to prove it can get developers and merchants on board and coax them that they want proof of payments for movie tickets and airline boarding passes available all in the same app, as opposed to in their own individual apps. But if PassBook does gets traction, expect a entire bunch of standalone loyalty apps to fold.
Offline reading and bookmarking apps
When Apple introduced its Reader and Reading Lists in mobile Safari last year, a few people worried that the feature had the potential to disrupt mobile reader apps like Instapaper. Well, if that was part of Apple’s plan, the launch of offline reading lists in mobile Safari only menaces them even further.
The fresh offline reading lists will permit users to cache entire websites rather than just individual links. For users who have to date relied on Instapaper, Pocket, Spool, or other apps to save content for reading during their commutes or when not connected to the Internet, having the same native capability built into iOS could obviate the need for those apps.
Group and private photo-sharing apps
Apple’s announcement most likely won’t affect the larger group of social photo-sharing apps — the Instagrams of the world, or those where the name of the game is making your photos available to as many people as possible. But there are a growing number of apps which have emerged around the idea of private sharing — that is, specifying exactly which family members you send pictures of your child to, or permitting folks who go on vacation together to all have the same group of photos without uploading to Facebook.
Apple’s revamped photo rivulets will permit users to create groups of photos and instantly share them with other users, as well as permitting those users to make comments on them. That could pose a threat to app makers like 1000Memories and others. It could also do away with the use case for online storage services like Dropbox where users upload groups of photos into folders and share them with others.
Mobile movie talk apps
Prior to iOS 6, FaceTime only worked on Apple devices, and it only worked on Wi-Fi. Those two factors have led to a proliferation of mobile talk apps that competed directly with the movie talk functionality built directly into iOS, apps like Skype, Tango, and ooVoo, among others. Well, Apple worked to solve one of those issues, by permitting users to make FaceTime calls on cellular networks.
The addition of Wi-Fi calling is unlikely to make a meaty dent in the movie talk competition, in part because the main differentiator for those competitors is multiplatform capability — being able to make calls across iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac operating systems. But it might mean that users who would have switched to an app which does cellular movie calling might use FaceTime when dialing another friend with an iPhone — or they might do movie talk when they otherwise would have done voice.
Which Apps Got Screwed By iOS 6, TechCrunch
Which Apps Got Screwed By iOS 6?
Today’s keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference highlighted a number of fresh features that the company has added to its mobile operating system. And while a number of updates will make life lighter for users, there are also some fresh features that will rival directly with developers who build for the iOS platform.
It’s always a tricky thing for developers, who seek to provide applications which add value on top of the mobile hardware and software that Apple has released. But as time goes on, more and more of the applications that developers build end up being substituted by features that Apple builds directly into its software. With the launch of iOS 6, here’s a list of apps and categories that could be affected by features Apple has added directly into the OS.
Turn-by-turn navigation apps
Given the big amount of work that Apple did to refine and upgrade its Maps application, this is most likely the most visible app category affected by the update. Google is the big loser, of course, since its maps were substituted by Apple’s own software. But there are a ton of maps applications that could be rendered obsolete, thanks mainly to the addition of turn-by-turn navigation.
The most demonstrable app makers who will be affected are most likely Garmin and TomTom, famous leaders in the space that sell GPS-based navigation apps at a premium. Both have USA navigation apps priced at around $50 on the Apple App store today. Those companies were already feeling some pressure from smaller free apps, but it’s difficult to imagine anyone buying those apps once the iOS six update comes out and Apple’s Maps provides the same functionality for free.
But leave behind about the big guys: There are a number of startups and free apps that could also be hurt by an improved Maps app. Take Waze, for example: it suggested a free, turn-by-turn navigation app that was powered by crowdsourcing data from its users. There might still be some users who find this functionality a differentiator, but it’s a firmer sell when the Maps app comes free and pre-installed.
Payments and loyalty program apps
The introduction of Apple’s PassBook could be superb for consumers, as it has the potential to permit them to aggregate all sorts of “passes” all in one place: That includes stuff like boarding passes, store cards, and movie tickets to embark, but there are all sorts of possibilities here to disrupt the larger mobile payments industry, as well as upend a entire bunch of smaller loyalty programs that are emerging on iOS.
There’s no shortage of loyalty apps out there — and in fact, one of the major problems with that industry is that today things are so fragmented that users never know which local merchant will support which app. Some players — like Square, with its Pay By Square app — have attempted to tie loyalty into their broader payment systems, which Apple seems unlikely to totally disrupt.
The other big issue is that Apple has to prove it can get developers and merchants on board and persuade them that they want proof of payments for movie tickets and airline boarding passes available all in the same app, as opposed to in their own individual apps. But if PassBook does gets traction, expect a entire bunch of standalone loyalty apps to fold.
Offline reading and bookmarking apps
When Apple introduced its Reader and Reading Lists in mobile Safari last year, a few people worried that the feature had the potential to disrupt mobile reader apps like Instapaper. Well, if that was part of Apple’s plan, the launch of offline reading lists in mobile Safari only menaces them even further.
The fresh offline reading lists will permit users to cache entire websites rather than just individual links. For users who have to date relied on Instapaper, Pocket, Spool, or other apps to save content for reading during their commutes or when not connected to the Internet, having the same native capability built into iOS could obviate the need for those apps.
Group and private photo-sharing apps
Apple’s announcement most likely won’t affect the larger group of social photo-sharing apps — the Instagrams of the world, or those where the name of the game is making your photos available to as many people as possible. But there are a growing number of apps which have emerged around the idea of private sharing — that is, specifying exactly which family members you send pictures of your child to, or permitting folks who go on vacation together to all have the same group of photos without uploading to Facebook.
Apple’s revamped photo flows will permit users to create groups of photos and instantly share them with other users, as well as permitting those users to make comments on them. That could pose a threat to app makers like 1000Memories and others. It could also do away with the use case for online storage services like Dropbox where users upload groups of photos into folders and share them with others.
Mobile movie talk apps
Prior to iOS 6, FaceTime only worked on Apple devices, and it only worked on Wi-Fi. Those two factors have led to a proliferation of mobile talk apps that competed directly with the movie talk functionality built directly into iOS, apps like Skype, Tango, and ooVoo, among others. Well, Apple worked to solve one of those issues, by permitting users to make FaceTime calls on cellular networks.
The addition of Wi-Fi calling is unlikely to make a giant dent in the movie talk competition, in part because the main differentiator for those competitors is multiplatform capability — being able to make calls across iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac operating systems. But it might mean that users who would have switched to an app which does cellular movie calling might use FaceTime when dialing another friend with an iPhone — or they might do movie talk when they otherwise would have done voice.
Which Apps Got Screwed By iOS 6, TechCrunch
Which Apps Got Screwed By iOS 6?
Today’s keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference highlighted a number of fresh features that the company has added to its mobile operating system. And while a number of updates will make life lighter for users, there are also some fresh features that will rival directly with developers who build for the iOS platform.
It’s always a tricky thing for developers, who seek to provide applications which add value on top of the mobile hardware and software that Apple has released. But as time goes on, more and more of the applications that developers build end up being substituted by features that Apple builds directly into its software. With the launch of iOS 6, here’s a list of apps and categories that could be affected by features Apple has added directly into the OS.
Turn-by-turn navigation apps
Given the large amount of work that Apple did to refine and upgrade its Maps application, this is very likely the most evident app category affected by the update. Google is the big loser, of course, since its maps were substituted by Apple’s own software. But there are a ton of maps applications that could be rendered obsolete, thanks mainly to the addition of turn-by-turn navigation.
The most evident app makers who will be affected are very likely Garmin and TomTom, famous leaders in the space that sell GPS-based navigation apps at a premium. Both have USA navigation apps priced at around $50 on the Apple App store today. Those companies were already feeling some pressure from smaller free apps, but it’s difficult to imagine anyone buying those apps once the iOS six update comes out and Apple’s Maps provides the same functionality for free.
But leave behind about the big guys: There are a number of startups and free apps that could also be hurt by an improved Maps app. Take Waze, for example: it suggested a free, turn-by-turn navigation app that was powered by crowdsourcing data from its users. There might still be some users who find this functionality a differentiator, but it’s a stiffer sell when the Maps app comes free and pre-installed.
Payments and loyalty program apps
The introduction of Apple’s PassBook could be good for consumers, as it has the potential to permit them to aggregate all sorts of “passes” all in one place: That includes stuff like boarding passes, store cards, and movie tickets to commence, but there are all sorts of possibilities here to disrupt the larger mobile payments industry, as well as upend a entire bunch of smaller loyalty programs that are emerging on iOS.
There’s no shortage of loyalty apps out there — and in fact, one of the major problems with that industry is that today things are so fragmented that users never know which local merchant will support which app. Some players — like Square, with its Pay By Square app — have attempted to tie loyalty into their broader payment systems, which Apple seems unlikely to totally disrupt.
The other big issue is that Apple has to prove it can get developers and merchants on board and woo them that they want proof of payments for movie tickets and airline boarding passes available all in the same app, as opposed to in their own individual apps. But if PassBook does gets traction, expect a entire bunch of standalone loyalty apps to fold.
Offline reading and bookmarking apps
When Apple introduced its Reader and Reading Lists in mobile Safari last year, a few people worried that the feature had the potential to disrupt mobile reader apps like Instapaper. Well, if that was part of Apple’s plan, the launch of offline reading lists in mobile Safari only menaces them even further.
The fresh offline reading lists will permit users to cache entire websites rather than just individual links. For users who have to date relied on Instapaper, Pocket, Spool, or other apps to save content for reading during their commutes or when not connected to the Internet, having the same native capability built into iOS could obviate the need for those apps.
Group and private photo-sharing apps
Apple’s announcement most likely won’t affect the larger group of social photo-sharing apps — the Instagrams of the world, or those where the name of the game is making your photos available to as many people as possible. But there are a growing number of apps which have emerged around the idea of private sharing — that is, specifying exactly which family members you send pictures of your child to, or permitting folks who go on vacation together to all have the same group of photos without uploading to Facebook.
Apple’s revamped photo rivulets will permit users to create groups of photos and instantly share them with other users, as well as permitting those users to make comments on them. That could pose a threat to app makers like 1000Memories and others. It could also do away with the use case for online storage services like Dropbox where users upload groups of photos into folders and share them with others.
Mobile movie talk apps
Prior to iOS 6, FaceTime only worked on Apple devices, and it only worked on Wi-Fi. Those two factors have led to a proliferation of mobile talk apps that competed directly with the movie talk functionality built directly into iOS, apps like Skype, Tango, and ooVoo, among others. Well, Apple worked to solve one of those issues, by permitting users to make FaceTime calls on cellular networks.
The addition of Wi-Fi calling is unlikely to make a fat dent in the movie talk competition, in part because the main differentiator for those competitors is multiplatform capability — being able to make calls across iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac operating systems. But it might mean that users who would have switched to an app which does cellular movie calling might use FaceTime when dialing another friend with an iPhone — or they might do movie talk when they otherwise would have done voice.