Here's how Apple is helping Indian app developers go global

India is emerging as a key market for Apple's future growth strategy

Apple is helping Indian app developers go global even as the iPhone maker seeks to strengthen its presence in the country.

Earlier this month, during the company's earnings conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said they are working on expanding the firm's developer ecosystem in the country.

This move was part of the Cupertino tech giant's efforts to ramp up its operations in one of the fastest-growing premium smartphone markets across the world.

“We've been very pleased that there is a rapidly growing base of developers there. And we're working all of the entire ecosystem from developer to the market to operations. I could not be more excited and enthusiastic about it," Cook said.

A key step towards achieving this has been Apple's developer centre in Bengaluru. Previously known as App Accelerator, the centre was earlier located in a separate facility at Yelahanka suburb in the city but has since moved to Apple's new office at Minsk Square in the city centre.

The developer centre helps developers of all sizes and stages in app development to hone their skills and improve the design, quality, and performance of their apps across Apple's various operating systems such as iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS.

It also offers in-person Apple developer sessions, labs, workshops, and consultations with Apple experts across a wide variety of categories. Developers can also meet with Apple employees to learn about the company's latest technologies and resources to enhance their apps and games.

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Mayank Jain, co-founder of game-based learning firm Splashlearn, said the centre has played a key role in its app distribution in over 150 countries. Splashlearn, which counts Owl Ventures and Accel among its investors, claims to currently have over 50 million learners on the platform, out of which about 7.5 million learners have been added in the past year.

Splashlearn provides a game-based curriculum for kids aged 2 to 11 (Prekindergarten to Grade 5) to learn Math and English. It claims to offer over 8,000 learning games, activities and printable worksheets apart from live classes.

"Since we have a lot of games and interactions within it, Apple helps us in understanding these various interactions. For instance, are we using the right app practices for kids or not," Jain said.

The company also provides constant feedback in terms of the design of the app's user interface or the game quality interactions, helping the startup make the app more interactive and easy to use for kids, he said.

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Aditya Ganguly, founder of art and mental wellness-focused app studio Omoi Studio, said that the tech giant also provides valuable insights into understanding specific markets. This enables developers to localise their products for those regions.

For example, Omoi Studio's flagship product, Groodles, aims to make art therapy accessible to everyone. While the US, UK, Canada, and Australia are among its biggest markets, the studio is seeing a surge of interest from Korea, and Japan as well, due to the visual language of Groodles.

Ganguly said that Apple is not only helping with app localisation on the backend, including how to translate the app itself, but also connecting the app studio with artists and other relevant people in those markets.

He said that sometimes they have approached Apple with the problem statements that they have, following which the tech giant has engaged in a 'creative jugalbandi' to build new features or improve existing ones.

Earlier this year, Omoi Studio also launched an app called Mahou for Apple's mixed-reality headset Vision Pro, one of the few applications from India to natively support the headset. Mahou allows users to experience ​original, immersive art exhibitions from their home.

Ganguly said they are also internally testing a Groodles app for the mixed reality headset at present.

In June, Apple is set to host its annual developer conference Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), where the firm is expected to unveil the next major versions of its operating systems across its lineup of products, including iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro, and Mac.

The company is also expected to unveil its artificial intelligence strategy and how it is incorporating the technology into its products.