UPDATED 01:35 EDT / AUGUST 10 2015

NEWS

Apple’s Android apps move is likely a desperate attempt to sell more Apple Watches

News broke last week that Apple was advertising for an applications SW engineer to work on Android apps, but given Apple’s reluctance previously to provide apps for the rival Android platform, has Apple finally realized that it can’t rely on users of the iPhone to cross-sell its other products, such as the Apple Watch?

According to the job listing, Apple is “looking for engineers to help [Apple] bring exciting new mobile products to the Android platform,” with, as 9to5Mac pointed out at the time, new being the only giveaway that Apple was planning to extend its range of Android apps from its current Move to iOS app and forthcoming release of Apple Music for Android.

Apple has previously prided itself on offering exclusive apps and services, delivering users a control ecosystem that even goes as far as being highly selective about what apps from third party providers are able to be run on their devices.

So why the change now?

The most common speculation around the tech sites is the idea that Apple wants to bring services such as iMessage to Android as it will naturally encourage further use of the platform by both Apple users who will now be able to use it to contact their Android using friends. Some even suggest that Apple may wish to bring iWork and iLife to Android, perhaps as some sort of play to counter Microsoft’s growing presence in mobile-based work applications.

One theory that has some merit is one proposed Ewan Spence at Forbes who argues it’s all about getting users into the Apple ecosystem, a Trojan Horse to attack Android by getting Android users who switch to Apple Music obtaining a subsequent connection to Apple’s cloud services, or in his words “starting out on a new digital adventure with Cupertino’s software.”

That may be the case, but it may be something far simpler again: Apple’s non-iPhone products don’t always play nicely with Android, and while there are third party ways to connect a Mac to an Android phone, the Apple Watch needs an iPhone to work.

Did we mention the Apple Watch has been a massive flop so far?

Although Apple fanboys like to bleat on about how iPhone sales in the United States are increasing, and that’s true, particularly since the launch of the iPhone 6 Plus. What they ignore is one fundamental fact: Android still dominates the worldwide smartphone market with the latest figures from IDC showing Android with a 78 percent market share compared to Apple’s 18.3 percent.

Nearly 82 percent of smartphone globally can’t buy an Apple Watch, with the vast majority being Android users.

What if Apple’s wonder-watch could all of a sudden work with Android phones?

Sure, it doesn’t mean they’ll magically ship millions more units, but unlocking a massive global audience who currently can’t use the Apple Watch due to not owning an iPhone would have to be positive of some sort, and there is precedent for Apple doing so; when the original iPod was launched it only worked with Macs via a Firewire cable, but later versions of the device were released supporting the USB standard and Apple launched iTunes for Windows to allow non-Mac users to manage their music libraries with the music player.

The rest, we know, is history.

Whichever way they jump, it will be interesting to see which way they will go, but when Apple eventually spins it has some great advancement or similar (they will, they ALWAYS do), just remember that the move, in whatever form, will likely be related to a desperate play to sell more Apple Watches.

Image credit: aidanwojtas/Flickr/CC by 2.0

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