The third-party applications have now been marked as the best-in-class when it comes to iOS. This happens to be a great achievement for all the third-party users, developers and precisely Apple. It offers various other third-parties, such as Google, with additional revenue and exposure. Eventually, providing users with superior applications for iOS users. Moreover, it helps selling more of these iOS gadgets for Apple. This may be working for Apple in the short term, but in the long term, Apple perhaps has to suffer.
Mostly people fail to see the issues with these superior quality third-party apps. Such users are partially right – the applications are not problematic. Instead, Apple’s terms and policies towards these 3rd party apps as well as a lack of creativity and innovation of their very own applications create the issues.
Initially, Apple does not enable users to set 3rd party apps as default app in the iOS. When it is about it, the iOS devices are more like the computers. Just think that you have not been able to set a default 3rd party browser or mail app in OS X. This certainly is not acceptable at all in the iOS. The only reason it has not created much of an issue so far is for the reason that the apps by Apple have been enough for most of the users. Until now, there have not been much compelling substitutes. This leads us to another issue. With the release of Chrome, Google Maps, and Gmail, Google is there to offer superior iOS applications as compared to Apple itself. Various other applications like Fantastical or Sparrow are also powerful alternatives Apple has offered. The lack of the default settings actually make the user experience comparatively less than ideal for the users, with the iOS feature of pushing users to only use the iOS apps in particular scenarios.
Eventually, some people perhaps consider that it is more seamless and easier to use an Android gadget than using a bunch of 3rd party apps on iOS devices. Later on, Apple touts the incorporation of these apps into the iOS as a unique feature, which is unbelievable if you are using the 3rd party applications.
On the other hand, Apple is not without useful solutions. There could be several and ideally, both of them will take place. First and foremost, Apple needs to work on its core applications at a pace which is faster or at least equivalent to the 3rd party apps. Secondly, Apple should allow users to opt for the 3rd party apps as the default apps. If one or even both of these solutions do not happen to occur, and will make Apple eventually lose its customer base, as they will prefer using the 3rd party apps, like Google’s, in a more integrated, and seamless experience.
With pretty simple modifications to the the iOS platform and its policies, Apple can really turn the iOS devices into superior, more dominant and better mobile platform. Nevertheless, an inflexible stance could result in a poor and clunky user experience that is going to drive away even the most loyal customers.