Contributor: Tech Mistress is not a so young ‘eccentric’, tech loving lady. She likes to share information in funny and witty ways, to inform but yet motivate. You can follow her on twitter – @AbiikeBlogger, and check out her blog – Mumuocrats.
Good news for all who know their ways around a computer, phones and cool techie gadgets but when it comes to technical mumbo jumbo like coding they go blank. You think Mark Zuckerberg and all coders are from another planet. With the power of user-friendly tools recently average people with no tech background have been able to create websites, original content without waiting for a tech guru. Apple is about to launch a tool that may only increase such powers.
Average computer usage could not effectively guarantee usage of the software development kits provided by Apple and Google in early days of App development. William Hurley, co-founder of mobile development company Chaotic Moon had this to say “SDKs have come a long way in general. For example in the early days of app development, there was no SDK for the iPhone. Apple simply said that “no software developer kit is required for the iPhone.” As a developer, you were limited to developing Web applications.
The lack of an SDK not only made it hard to develop for the iPhone, it also severely limited what could be done in general; leaving many to say that the iPhone would never be a killer device. Apple however soon saw the error of its ways and started to make SDKs that gave the company a tremendous market advantage in the app game.” According to reports Apple is working on “a new digital content authoring” tool that could make it simple for people without a background in programming to build their own iOS applications for the iPhone and iPad. For the “non-techie” small business owner, this could be huge. No more app development costs on the budget!
A plus for startups and SMEs.
Google however has beaten Apple to the punch by releasing a similar “non-developer” toolkit. The Google App inventor was originally released in 2010 and is now maintained by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it allows anyone, including people unfamiliar with computer programming, to create software applications for the Android operating system (OS).
Google has for years been diversifying its platform which includes YouTube, Blogger, Gmail etc Ten years ago, website design was much more arduous and not for the faint of heart. This has changed. For years, robust content management systems like WordPress allow non-Web designers to create relatively inexpensive, powerful, and visually compelling websites. This similar shift is taking place in the app world though not quite the same as Web design.
Ultimately, whether Apple’s DIY(do it yourself) app tools will have similar impacts to database development and Web design is anyone’s guess. Perhaps Apple will democratize and facilitate app development for the masses. It might take a few tries to get it right, but Apple’s track record these days is hard to bet against.
