Bangalore iPhone App Accelerator facility gives attendees a two-year lead on competition

Developers from Apple's Bangalore, India App Accelerator claim that the center gives them a leg up on competitors, with the mentoring help them adopt Apple's frameworks much quicker than they would have otherwise.

Gadgets 360 spoke to many developers who signed up for Apple's training at the App Accelerator, with all of them celebrating Apple's efforts.

"The experience at the App Accelerator has been really good; Apple really wants Indian developers to be part of the global players," Alvin Varghese, the founder of Swift India Developer Community told Gadgets 360. "We are glad that Apple is doing this."

Apple's facility can handle up to 500 developers a week. Sessions range between two and four hours, with Apple employees training on the newest APIs, focusing lately on SiriKit.

One developer noted that without the accelerator, it takes them around two years to integrate Apple's new frameworks. Before the training, they would wait until people got the update, and then start work on the new features.

"Here we give a greater opportunity for the developers in the market to learn about these innovations quicker, play with them, experiment with them, understand how they can best use them in their apps," said Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller when the facility launched. "I think that can help them to make more innovative apps, quicker than if we weren't here."

Apple also instructs the developers to focus more on local audiences, rather than pursuing the U.S. user base.

The Accelerator opened at the end of March, and hosts labs and presentations on elements like interface design, working with frameworks, and coding in Swift. Help is available for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

Rvents at the Accelerator are free, but attendees must be registered Apple developers, and sign into the center's scheduling page.

6 Comments

Avieshek 100 comments · 7 Years

About 7 years ago

Kundli

gmgravytrain 884 comments · 8 Years

It almost seems like a waste of Apple's time. 98% of Indian consumers will be proudly and happily using low-cost Android smartphones. Alphabet will practically own all of India. An iPhone will be rarer than hen's teeth in India. Is Apple even an aspirational brand in India? Wall Street already believes the iPhone will be a mega-flop in that country so I doubt there's anything positive for Apple worth noting. Too bad but I guess that's just how it's meant to be for higher-priced Apple products.

anantksundaram 20390 comments · 18 Years

gmgravytrain said:

It almost seems like a waste of Apple's time. 98% of Indian consumers will be proudly and happily using low-cost Android smartphones. Alphabet will practically own all of India. An iPhone will be rarer than hen's teeth in India. Is Apple even an aspirational brand in India? Wall Street already believes the iPhone will be a mega-flop in that country so I doubt there's anything positive for Apple worth noting. Too bad but I guess that's just how it's meant to be for higher-priced Apple products.

Your deeply insightful marketing memo has been forwarded to Tim Cook. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Apple's Marketing Team

9secondkox2 3120 comments · 8 Years

That poor lady in the middle. Very awkward photo.

colinng 115 comments · 14 Years

gmgravytrain said:

It almost seems like a waste of Apple's time. 98% of Indian consumers will be proudly and happily using low-cost Android smartphones.

My parents and school teachers often would say, "if you never try..."

Alphabet will practically own all of India. An iPhone will be rarer than hen's teeth in India.

I am unhappy at how dominant Alphabet/Google have become. About how unaware most people are of common sense ideas such as, "nothing is free". I think Tim Cook said it best (or was it Steve Jobs? I forget when and where) that people will one day become very angry when they come to the realization what these large silicon valley companies are doing to privacy and personal information.

I draw an imaginary line between, a "free" service which sells your information and results in massive profit for the provider, against "free" source code where the observation the "data wants to be free" is coming true because the cost of disseminating information have dropped such that it is obvious that the benefits outweigh the costs.

I don't think that Apple despises its customers, and they certainly don't relish in continued ignorance. An old school marketing mantra was, "an informed customer is the best customer." Let's hope that Apple continues to believe that.

People will rise, will strive to shed their own ignorance, and should economic situations change such that they can afford to, will buy higher quality items that last longer and serve themselves and the environment better. It is good business sense to target that market even if you have to face the challenge of coexisting in the same market where many voices (or ads) trying to peddle items of dubious value.

Is Apple even an aspirational brand in India?

It's a good question but I think they are an aspirational brand everywhere. Or as one person put it, "even a goat farmer in Afghanistan knows what an iPhone is."

Wall Street already believes the iPhone will be a mega-flop in that country so I doubt there's anything positive for Apple worth noting. Too bad but I guess that's just how it's meant to be for higher-priced Apple products.

Wall Street, or any organization, isn't a monoculture. There are seasoned thinkers who write when they feel they have something of value to say, and support objective reporting, and then there are people who think they can make a quick buck on ad dollars.

An example of supporting objective thinking, one poster said that Walt Mossberg lost much of his objectivity after he left the Wall Street Journal. If true, then they (at least at some point in time) had an environment that fostered quality reporting.

So let's ignore some of the noise, and aim for what we want for others - that they can receive high quality products that protect their privacy and personal information, and receive a vibrant ecosystem that serves them. If that means somebody has to kickstart that with an investment in training, capital, etc., and a company can afford to do that, why not also let them reap some of the long-term gains down the road?