Ford has done something brilliant today. For the first time ever, the company has revealed a full fledged Software Development Kit for the developers, letting them submit their apps to their own App Store.
There aren’t many car companies which dare to open up a SDK for the developers to take advantage of the technologies that come integrated in their vehicles. But things have moved really fast. Ford, world’s most renowned car manufacturer, has now released a new SDK for the developers to take advantage of the integrated systems that come with their cars across the world.
Even though this year’s CES is not creating the buzz that it used to create in the previous years, the event saw one of the major steps in the industry, which came from Ford, instead of the regular IT companies. Talking about the new SDK, Ford’s Paul Mascarenas says:
“App developers are now joining the Ford Developer Program to allow vehicle owners to control some of their favorite apps for in-vehicle use with SYNC AppLink, using voice commands. With a diverse set of categories such as Music & Entertainment, News & Information to Navigation & Travel, Health and Wellness, Ford offers a great opportunity for developers to integrate their apps into the car.”
Interesting right? I’m sure this has opened up a lot of opportunities which not many thought of, initially. If you’re a developer interested in building some apps for the cars, here’s where you should be heading. http://developer.ford.com/
But wait, there’s more here. Say that I’ve developed an app using the SDK. What’s next? Well, I’ll have to submit the app to the Ford’s own App Store, and the company would review the app, and approve it accordingly. Ford has also revealed that they would be doing something like Apple to bring in the apps to the public app store. Here’s what the company revealed about the approval process:
Ford will still have an approval process that will look more like Apple’s than Android’s. Certain kinds of apps will be barred, like games, elaborate video and anything that would require extensive reading.
I’m sure this has got a future, and I wish these kinds of SDK, and a unified platform comes to a lot of these cars across the world.