The move may pose a challenge to Google’s significantly larger technology ecosystem, which saw the Android operating system platform power over 92% of the new phones that were sold in India last year.
Between them, Apple and Google cumulatively control more than two out of every three consumer gadgets in the world. And, for the Big Tech duo, India’s developer base is crucial to offer its users the latest suite of applications. Data from Microsoft-owned GitHub, the world’s largest platform for developers, showed that as of October, India was the world’s second-largest base for developers worldwide, behind only the US, with 17 million active developers building apps for various platforms.
Having control over the developer ecosystem is crucial for both companies, which earn significant revenue by selling applications on their digital marketplaces—Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. Getting more developers to build for their ecosystems would mean more apps for users to use and purchase—thus leading to more revenue for each company.
While neither disclose app-specific revenue, Apple earned $26.3 billion from ‘services’ in the December quarter, which included revenue from its applications marketplace. During the same period, Google earned $11.6 billion from ‘subscriptions, platforms and devices’, which are driven by its earnings from apps.
Also read | How the iPhone 16e might help Apple log record sales this year
Cumulatively, app developers, therefore, directly or indirectly account for nearly $100 billion in annual revenue for Apple and Google.
Further, roping in developers into their AI initiatives is key since this helps the two companies monetize investments that they have made in developing AI models—a capital-intensive task.
Apple’s generative AI features include sorting photographs and videos on a device with text instructions, a wider range of queries through Apple’s on-device digital assistant ‘Siri’, contextual grouping of notifications, text and message summaries, live transcription of phone calls, object recognition and more.
While the suite of features is similar to what Google already offers, its overall prospect is a strong pull for developers. Globally, the Cupertino, California-based company had over 2.35 billion active devices as of the end of last year, chief executive Tim Cook said in Apple’s December quarter earnings call. This gives developers one of the world’s single-largest technology ecosystems to build applications for.
Google is even more appealing. Data from open-source statistics platform StatCounter said that at the end of last year, Google’s Android accounts for 73% of 7.2 billion smartphones worldwide, and 47% of all devices around the world—thereby making Google a point for developers to access over half the world’s population.
It is this that makes the latest developer showdown an exciting one.
“Apple’s AI developer tools are entirely free to access for now, and third-party developers in India can start accessing them now to build Apple Intelligence into their apps for iPhones, iPads and Macs. Being an early-mover in this space will be key for developers, since integrating with Apple’s ecosystem will help developers tap into an early interest in AI features from users, as iPhone users in India get access to AI features for the first time in April,” said a senior web development executive who works closely with Apple, requesting anonymity due to their working clause with the company.
Also read | Budget smartphones sell like hot cakes in tepid market
Google, meanwhile, has a multi-tiered approach to AI on phones. The Mountain View, California-based company offers open-source, lightweight AI models and associated tools under its ‘Gemma’ umbrella for free to developers to build applications that do not need access to large ‘context windows’, or AI-integrated apps that have a small set of tasks in a limited scope of usage. Meanwhile, its Gemini suite of developer tools have both free and paid pricing tiers, with large-scale apps seeking to tap users at scale almost compulsorily needing to pay some fee to Google for its tools.
“It’s a simple rationale—if you make money, you must pay a fee, and that’s not really unfair. After all, Google is commercializing its AI models and tools, and will hope to see increasing returns from AI operations in the long run. For now, this is the phase where Google will look to build a big user and developer base, so it makes sense that while smaller models and tools are free, premium features such as the ability to handle bigger queries are paid features,” said Kashyap Kompella, AI analyst and chief executive of technology consultant RPA2AI Research.
For Apple, keeping its AI tools free is important because of how it fundamentally differs from Google. To be sure, Apple’s software is not used by any other brand. Google, however, licenses its Android operating system to power most smartphones around the world—alongside its own Pixel line of hardware.
“In the long run, we may see Apple bundle a premium AI tier into its ‘services’ offering, which is generating increasing revenue for the company. But until then, it needs developers to integrate its AI features into their applications—only then will it have a robust ecosystem of apps that users won’t feel are underwhelming to Google’s much more open ecosystem,” said Jayanth Kolla, founding partner of technology consultant Convergence Catalyst.
Also read | Online gaming: One nation, one law may blaze a way out of the maze
Apple, however, has confirmed that all AI features remain free for all users at the moment—with no immediate plan to charge users a subscription fee to access them. Google’s subset of paid tools, meanwhile, have already seen brands like Samsung state that AI features are free until the end of this year—without clarity on what happens after that.
Apple Intelligence will begin rolling out to all users of iPhones, iPads and Macs in India in April, while Google’s Gemini-powered features have been available for nearly two years now. As Apple catches up with its key competitor, developers will, for now, rejoice in being able to build up AI features for free. But, in the long run, paid features will likely come through—akin to how both the companies charge a much-contentious ‘commission’ to allow developers to sell their apps on their digital marketplaces.
