What’s in store for enterprise app dev with iPhone 6 and iOS 8?

Amidst the consumer buzz, I thought it would be a good time to take a closer look at the potential impact on (and opportunity for) enterprise developers based on Apple’s latest and greatest OS.

We’re all anxiously awaiting Apple’s official iPhone 6 and iOS 8 launch announcement next week. As usual, the rumor mill has been swirling since June with feature leaks and reviews of the alleged functionalities surfacing on a daily basis.

After sifting through the clutter and more than 4000 new APIs, here are my top highlights for enterprise developers:

1. App Extension Cord. App extensions will make it easier to add common tasks such as Photo Editing, storage choices and cloud storage access, custom keyboards and social sharing apps. Of course, this will save development time, but it will also further standardize the user experience instantly making the app more appealing to users expecting the same experience from their consumer apps.

2. Kit’n’Kaboodle. Apple’s new kits have received the lion’s share of coverage across consumer and tech press, and for good reason. They’re a game changer for users and developers alike. Here’s why:

• PhotoKit will offerManual Camera Controls, making it easier than ever for savvy users to take professional-grade photos. A new API architecture for thumbnails and full-sized assets, along with the ability to edit content, elevates the extension to another level. The new API will also make it easier to integrate into enterprise apps.

• HealthKit is a little more complex. At the foundation, Apple will now offer a place for users to store, track and share health and fitness information in a secure environment. It remains to be seen how user privacy will affect third-party integration, but the potential impact on healthcare is enormous. From the development side, we know there’s a lot of opportunity here and many teams are already focused on this space. For instance, VitalBox is using Corticon to build rules into its Personal Health Platform, which benefits both patients and caregivers by providing a health map that uses a patient's medical history and lifestyle to calculate the chance of developing chronic conditions, and then proposes actions to reduce risks. Alerts are delivered to the patient if bodily measurements reach certain thresholds. Apple’s HealthKit will help give developers a framework to start with and will undoubtedly spawn a rash of new health apps.

• HomeKit controls connected devices in a user’s home. Apps can discover devices and subsequently configure them. Users can also create actions and groups of actions to control devices or groups of devices. Those actions can then be triggered using Siri (which is also much improved in the latest release). This is in line with the quintessential Internet of Things examples. Intelligent locks, automated lighting control, etc. will change how consumers manage their personal lives. From the enterprise perspective, the IoT holds a lot of potential beyond automatic door locks and we’re ramping up R&D on ways business can exploit it. At the foundation is Node.js – the first step in building a bridge to IoT – and from there, businesses can look to features such as the HomeKit to transpose more consumer innovations into enterprise breakthroughs.

3. Games get an overhaul. There’s something brewing in the industry on this topic. Just last week, Amazon acquired Twitch, a video platform and community for gamers. With the introduction of Metal, Apple improves graphics performance 10X bringing console-class 3D games to iOS. Developers will find ways to leverage these new capabilities and frameworks and adapt them to the increasingly visual enterprise.

4. iWallet. Bloomberg News reported Sunday that Apple has lined up agreements with the major credit card companies MasterCard, Visa, and American Express. It’s sounds like they will launch a mobile payment system on Sept. 9, along with the company's newest iPhone. Could we be looking at the final piece of the puzzle for a real mobile wallet?

What development opportunities or issues do you see with this news? We’d love to hear what you’ve got planned! Comment here or Tweet us @ProgressSW.

In addition, I'll be live blogging the Apple launch here on Tuesday, September 9th. Stop by and hang out as our team begins to spark new ideas for the future of application development.