Want an iPhone app? Open an API, and you may get one for free!
January 15th, 2009
Sarah Perez wrote an interesting post on ReadWriteWeb today in which she asked “why doesn’t Southwest Airlines have an iPhone app?”
In the comments were some great suggestions, along with the usual group of “iPhone and apple are evil” and “just do a mobile web browser” points of view.
I commented that several of Mashery’s customers, including the likes of Netflix and WhitePages.com, got their iphone apps (and in Netflix’s case, a blackberry app and inclusion on the windows mobile deck) by having an API.
That an API is the FasTrack (EZPass to those of you on the East coast) lane to an iPhone, Blackberry or mobile app shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, for two reasons:
1. For the geeks among us, a typical web app is three layers – the data layer (what we know), the logic layer (how we manipulate the data), and the presentation layer (the UI that is rendered on a web browser. An API bypasses the presentation layer and gives direct access to the logic and data layers. Since a mobile app is simply a new presentation layer – a new UI that makes different use of the data and logic layers – it follows that the easiest way to get a new presentation layer to work is to start with an API, and not to design all three layers anew; and
2. Southwest’s core competency is being an airline. They have also proven that they are quite good at creating a user interface and web experience that makes it simple for non-geeks to buy airline tickets. But this does not mean that they have a similar skillset on making great mobile apps. Sure, as one commenter on the RWW post said, a mobile app can just be something that runs on the browser. But that is not necessarily the best experience possible. Using location info, it can default to listing flights from the closest airport, for example. A great mobile app designer will understand how to make this a great experience, and having a bunch of these designers all working on apps will allow the best user experience to get the highest ratings and most traction.
Companies often have very passionate customers. Some of those customers also are developers, and they want to build a great app – and will do so for free.
As it turns out, the open API is the quickest path to a mobile app. Who knew?
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Sweet blog. I never know what I am going to come across next. I think you should do more posting as you have some pretty intelligent stuff to say.
I’ll be watching you .
July 9th, 2009 at 10:15 am
do you know API that serve for movie search for review, and other data? thanks before.
August 8th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Ive got an iphone and i dont know how exactly it gets an internet connection, local web servers i think it says in the manual, but anyway it is so slow and it definatley needs improvment, it takes 2 minutes just to load up google!
November 17th, 2009 at 1:22 am
Great artical and food for thought…keep up your postings as you do not take no for a answer we need more people like you…I look forward in reading more…Thanks
January 3rd, 2010 at 4:07 pm
That is a new way to think about it. I never supposed thought I would hear you say this, though, after all your other posts about Macs.
February 12th, 2010 at 11:47 am
I’ll gear this review to 2 types of people: current Zune owners who are considering an upgrade, and people trying to decide between a Zune and an iPod. (There are other players worth considering out there, like the Sony Walkman X, but I hope this gives you enough info to make an informed decision of the Zune vs players other than the iPod line as well.)Have you tried the ipad? you can get one free at FreshGiftCard.com
February 16th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
The cpu is labeled as a little newer model number however it and the GPU are likely the similar pace as the 3GS. The old Contact using the same Processor and GPU since the 3G was quicker. Besides having the clock pace turned up greater the Touch has much less software to run since it