Apple Inc's new Swift language a "huge leap forward for iOS ecosystem," offers "enormous opportunity

Posted:
in iPad edited July 2014
Speaking to analysts, Apple's chief executive Tim Cook called the company's new Swift programming language "a huge leap forward for the iOS ecosystem" and an important contributing factor to the company's new partnership with IBM targeting enterprise app development.

Apple Swift


Cook opened his prepared remarks by noting Apple's "best ever" Worldwide Developer Conference had attracted a new record audience of "20 million people from around the world watching our keynote," where the company introduced Swift alongside iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite.

Referring to Swift as "an innovative new programming language for iOS and OS X," Cook noted that "Swift is the result of the latest research on programming languages, combined with decades of experience building Apple platforms. It makes writing code code interactive and fun, eliminates entire classes of unsafe code, and generates apps that run lightning fast," Cook stated.

"It's easy to learn, allowing even more people to dream big and create whole new categories of apps. We believe our new OS releases combined with Swift will result in a huge leap forward for the Apple ecosystem, and we can't wait to see what developers will create with Yosemite, iOS 8 and Swift."

iOS Everywhere, Swiftly

Cook then described Apple as "extending iOS in even more directions," outlining the company's plans for CarPlay as "a safe and intuitive user interface while driving," HealthKit integration with medical providers and fitness sensor makers, and HomeKit, which Cook described as a way to "control lights, doors, thermostats and other connected devices around the house using Siri."

CarPlay


In the enterprise market, Cook said, "we've forged a relationship with IBM to deliver a new class of mobile business solutions to enterprise customers around the world. We're working together to provide companies access to the power of big data analytics right on every employee's iPhone or iPad.

"Using Swift, we will collaborate to bring over 100 MobileFirst apps to enterprise clients, each addressing a specific industry need or opportunity.

"This is a radical step for enterprise. It opens a large market opportunity for Apple," Cook emphasized. "But more importantly, it's great for productivity and creativity of our enterprise customers."

Cook concluded, "from the pocket, to the car, to the workplace, home and gym, we have a very large vision of what iOS can be and we are incredibly excited about our plans."

App Store growth off the charts

In the question and answer portion of the conference call, Apple's chief financial officer Luca Maestri outlined that Apple's iTunes billings grew 25 percent year over year to reach an all-time high.

Apple has now paid its App Store developers more than $20 billion, the company noted, nearly half of which was paid out over the last 12 months. Cook added that in China, Apple's iTunes software & services, including the App Store is "almost doubling" year over year."Mobile in enterprise is an enormous opportunity" - Tim Cook

Specific to enterprise apps, Cook also reiterated that Apple and IBM both see "mobile in enterprise is an enormous opportunity." He later responded to a question about whether Apple would continue to take a cut of enterprise apps sold through iTunes by stating there were "no plans to change the rules with enterprise."

Cook added that "some enterprises write proprietary apps they do not want to offer to others, and so we obviously have a way for them to distribute those into their enterprise on just the employees they want to. I'm not worried about changing that. We're all for taking friction out of the system, and not adding it.

"Again, the big thing for us is getting the penetration number up," Cook said. "Getting our products, iPhones and iPad and Macs, in more people's hands. And we think there's a big opportunity in enterprise to do that."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 72
    reydnreydn Posts: 73member
    So, will Swift make it easier for a programming noob to develop basic apps?
  • Reply 2 of 72
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,257member

    I hadn't thought of the connection between Swift and IBM enterprise apps for iPad, but it seems pretty obvious now that it's pointed out :-)

     

    If Apple can actually meet cook's goal of going from 20 percent enterprise penetration to 60 percent, that would be a pretty big deal. 

  • Reply 3 of 72
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by reydn View Post



    So, will Swift make it easier for a programming noob to develop basic apps?

     

    No matter how you slice it, if you have no affinity for programming nothing will improve the experience.

  • Reply 4 of 72
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member
    Swift is the most important thing Apple has released since the iPhone. It shows that their forward thinking is so far ahead of the competition and they aren't standing still.

    If Microsoft isn't in the process of writing Windows or their compiler from scratch, they're done. Companies have put up with their security holes since Windows 3.11.
  • Reply 5 of 72
    reydn wrote: »
    So, will Swift make it easier for a programming noob to develop basic apps?

    no. Basic apps don't require Swift.
  • Reply 6 of 72
    bugsnwbugsnw Posts: 717member

    Swift... another differentiating technology that will make it even more difficult to compete against Apple. I don't see how Android users can live on this planet and still choose Android. All the cool innovation and manufacturing breakthroughs are happening in Cupertino.

     

    Or is there an "Android Insider" forum chock full of rabid Android fans? And what do they get jacked up about other than how fractured their OS is...

  • Reply 7 of 72
    blastdoor wrote: »
    I hadn't thought of the connection between Swift and IBM enterprise apps for iPad, but it seems pretty obvious now that it's pointed out :-)

    If Apple can actually meet cook's goal of going from 20 percent enterprise penetration to 60 percent, that would be a pretty big deal. 

    I too didn't expect there to be a connection between the Swift language and the IBM partnership. I hadn't heard the 20% to 60% numbers before. When did Cook say that? If that is their goal, then that will indeed blow the lid off of sales of iDevices. In fact a 60% penetration of Exxon alone would be worth breaking out the century-old champaign.

    That hole out behind Microsoft's Redmond offices needs to be expanded to hold all the Surface Pro 3s. When filled and covered, I understand there will a break dance exhibit done on the mound... that is after Ballmer does his obligatory monkey dance.
  • Reply 8 of 72
    bugsnw wrote: »
    Swift... another differentiating technology that will make it even more difficult to compete against Apple. I don't see how Android users can live on this planet and still choose Android. All the cool innovation and manufacturing breakthroughs are happening in Cupertino.

    Or is there an "Android Insider" forum chock full of rabid Android fans? And what do they get jacked up about other than how fractured their OS is...

    In any good diverse ecosystem there are important niches for bottom-feeders and sucker fish.
  • Reply 9 of 72

    In the question and answer portion of the conference call, Apple's chief financial officer Luca Maestri outlined that Apple's iTunes billings <a href="http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/07/22/itunes-software-and-services-fastest-growing-apple-business-this-year">grew</a> 25 percent year over year to reach an all-time high.

    Since, supposedly the music business has tanked, all this growth must be coming from app sales and/or in-app sales??
  • Reply 10 of 72
    paul94544paul94544 Posts: 1,027member
    Windows OS has - a problem, which was this: most of the people using it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small little files around the desktop, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small little files that were unhappy
  • Reply 11 of 72
    paul94544paul94544 Posts: 1,027member

    The future holds much for the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. A merger with Microsoft is very likely in the future, benefiting both companies. However SCC has expressed concerns that its Quality of Product could be adversely effected. However, Bill Gates Has assured he will oversee and 'Captain' the proposed merger; SCC shares continue to fall.

  • Reply 12 of 72
    paul94544paul94544 Posts: 1,027member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Macky the Macky View Post





    In any good diverse ecosystem there are important niches for bottom-feeders and sucker fish.

    Don't forget the Babel fish - Dude

  • Reply 13 of 72
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    paul94544 wrote: »
    The future holds much for the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. A merger with <a href="http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Microsoft" style="background-image:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);" target="_blank" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a>
     is very likely in the future, benefiting both companies. However SCC has expressed concerns that its Quality of Product could be adversely effected. However, <a href="http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Bill_Gates" style="background-image:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);" target="_blank" title="Bill Gates">Bill Gates</a>
     Has assured he will oversee and 'Captain' the proposed merger; SCC shares continue to fall.

    That's depressing.

    And here I am, brain the size of a planet...
  • Reply 14 of 72
    phone-ui-guyphone-ui-guy Posts: 1,019member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Blastdoor View Post

     

    I hadn't thought of the connection between Swift and IBM enterprise apps for iPad, but it seems pretty obvious now that it's pointed out :-)

     

    If Apple can actually meet cook's goal of going from 20 percent enterprise penetration to 60 percent, that would be a pretty big deal. 


     

    Swift can make it be a much easier transition for all those enterprise Java programers. It is really interesting to think that Apple had the creation of Swift on their todo list in part for getting deeper into Enterprise. There are obviously other benefits, but that is certainly looking at the chess board several moves ahead of the game.

  • Reply 15 of 72
    phone-ui-guyphone-ui-guy Posts: 1,019member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Macky the Macky View Post

     
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post





    In the question and answer portion of the conference call, Apple's chief financial officer Luca Maestri outlined that Apple's iTunes billings grew 25 percent year over year to reach an all-time high.




    Since, supposedly the music business has tanked, all this growth must be coming from app sales and/or in-app sales??

     

    They said it was on the strength of the App Store.

  • Reply 16 of 72
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by reydn View Post



    So, will Swift make it easier for a programming noob to develop basic apps?



    I can tell you right now, that after my 25+ years of programming experience... just because you can hold a hammer, most will have no business building houses with it.



    I suspect we'll see the emergence of more "I am rich" crap apps, and weekend wannabe coders suddenly proclaiming themselves to be software engineers because they were able to compile a "Hello World" example.



     

  • Reply 17 of 72
    enzosenzos Posts: 344member
    I never thought of they business side of Swift, either. Swift and nimble! Small or large companies could write and edit new apps ASAP on demand as company direction or demands change. Apple for leading!
  • Reply 18 of 72
    reydn wrote: »
    So, will Swift make it easier for a programming noob to develop basic apps?

    That's what Java and Android are for.
  • Reply 19 of 72
    jexusjexus Posts: 373member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by reydn View Post



    So, will Swift make it easier for a programming noob to develop basic apps?

    If you're somewhat familiar with a language such as C#, I'd say it wouldn't make it much easier. I'd even wager to go out and say if you're vaguely familiar with C-style Syntax that Swift will probably do you slightly better than most other C derivatives/subsets/successors. It's just a matter of getting accommodated.

     

    Quote: C#

     

    // Declare Constant
    // C#
    const int VotingAge = 21;

    // Declare Variable
    // C#
    var legalAge = 18;




    Quote: Swift

     

    // Declare Constant
    // Swift
    let VotingAge = 21

    // Declare Variable
    // Swift
    var legalAge = 18


    Someone can correct me if wrong(Syntax wise)

     

    That is if this is the "noob" you are referring to. If the problem instead lies in the grasping of computation, logic and critical thinking? Well that is an entirely other issue that should be addressed in immediacy regardless of the programming language. A tool is only as useful as the person behind it.

    ---------

     

    EDIT: From a language purity standpoint this comment stands.

     

    From a feature standpoint...things like Interactive Playgrounds are a HUGE benefit to programmers easily capable of boosting productivity, and its object oriented nature is a plus for generally most people today. Add in memory safety features and you've got some killer bonuses for a new language, again for most programmers(Though I think everyone can agree that Interactive Playgrounds is an indisputably welcome addition).

  • Reply 20 of 72
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Cocoa Frameworks are the big draw. If Swift makes C++ devs more comfy than I can see IBM being influenced more to partner up. But it's Cocoa that does the heavy lifting, not unofficial best of Objective-C and C without C baggage [Swift] and several modern features of Systems Programming.

    When Swift becomes part of LLVM/Clang proper then I know how serious IBM is with this partnership.
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