Connected Devices, APIs and the New Web - Can You Make the Shift to a Post-Browser World? »

Two weeks ago the Wall Street Journal ran the story ‘Sam's Club to Use Wi-Fi to Push TVs,’ highlighting internet-connected TVs which run popular social media or video applications. Last week WSJ highlighted how cable companies are getting their content on the iPad in response to excellent execution by Netflix and Hulu. This week, WSJ reports how businesses like law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, Bausch & Lomb, and Mercedes-Benz Financial are adopting the iPad as a business tool. APIs are all over the business press as early leaders emerge and competitive pressure to succeed in the multi-device web heats up. 

Chris Anderson sees the trend. From his excellent feature article in this month’s Wired:

Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semi-closed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display. It’s driven primarily by the rise of the iPhone model of mobile computing, and it’s a world Google can’t crawl, one where HTML doesn’t rule. And it’s the world that consumers are increasingly choosing….

We’ve seen a shift like this before. In the late 90s, consumers adopted the web to search, shop, and socialize. Companies who recognized the shift capitalized (think Google, Amazon, or eBay), and those who couldn't innovate fast enough suffered. 

How can consumers reach your service or interact with you on their device (phone/set top/tablet/car/other) of choice? Can your service or data be included or embedded in applications consumers love? What would be the impact if your main competitor’s service was available everywhere and embedded in popular applications and devices?

An open API strategy allows you to engage and capitalize in the multi-device world - and just like we saw in the 90s with websites, companies need to adapt to succeed. 

Developers ignoring you?  You can’t afford it »

Last week Will Richmond of @VideoNuze posted a fantastic piece, Comcast's New iPad App is Full of Surprises, about Comcast’s cool new iPad Xfinity remote app.

In his post, Will makes a great observation as to why the app didn’t happen years ago:

"There are many different ways to answer the question, but I think it boils down to 2 things: first, while most cable companies have invested heavily in behind-the-scenes infrastructure to deliver broadband and other advanced TV services, relatively few new on-screen services have been created because cable is largely a closed environment for application developers. Cable has been closed because cable operators have it in their DNA to be focused on control of what goes into their subscribers' homes. Letting "a thousand flowers bloom" is not in the average cable executive's mindset.

Second, and as a byproduct of this, most developers have ignored the cable environment. While Apple's App Store boasts of hundreds of thousands of innovative apps, the cable world has lumbered to deliver a tiny fraction of this amount, and at a glacial pace. It's not for lack of interest by developers; going back to the mid-90s there has been interest in interactive apps. But between the technology impediments and the cart-before-the horse negotiations over revenue splitting that cable operators inevitably get into, most developers have simply moved on to the open, flexible Internet. That's been a huge missed opportunity for cable, which could have been an intensely appealing platform for interactivity. Instead the door has been opened wide for others like Apple and Google to rush in."

And right on cue, last week Google announced Google TV.

Will’s point is so spot-on I’ve posted his words verbatim and I’d recommend you read them again and contemplate what this means for your business. No, really, read them again.  I’ll wait.

In a world where the iPhone comes out of nowhere with a hundred thousand apps and Netflix is streaming its movies to dozens of devices, twitter’s amazing ecosystem, and eBay doing $7B/year via APIs, you CANNOT AFFORD to keep your doors closed to outside innovation.  Our own Sam Ramji presented a very well received talk on the change in business strategy APIs are forcing.

Is your business open to outside innovation?  What would happen if your competitor opened its business to developers tomorrow?

Retailer Markets Moving to Open APIs »

When one of the largest, most successful retailers on the planet makes a move, you can definitely consider it a confirmation of a trend.

Last week, the WSJ reported that Wal-Mart is opening smaller-format stores in new urban locations.  Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke stated in their annual report that their growth will be driven by “innovated new formats”, which includes the smaller stores and stores with drive-throughs for picking up internet purchases.

Essentially, Wal-Mart is going to where their customers are…. taking their brands to different chnnels where customers spend their time, to be there when those customers want to buy.

What does that have to do with APIs?  Everything.

Retailers as diverse as Sears, Netflix, and BestBuy are opening APIs to take their brands and their services to where their customers spend time.  Those customers are on Facebook, on Twitter, on enthusiast sites, on their iPhones, iPads, Xboxes, etc. 

As the image below from Sam's Web 2.0 talk depicts - you may have to connect to customers across many diverse channels, from smartphones to Xboxes to your car and kiosks.)

Getting your capabilities into these environments where customers are spending time requires that you fit into new formats… like an iPhone or Android app, or an iPad or Xbox app.  You can’t possibly be an expert in the dozens (hundreds?) of platforms, sites, and devices out there.  Developers can help you do that, if you have your catalogs and services exposed via web APIs.

By the way, we have a new whitepaper out on Retail 2.0 today, you can get a sneak preview here.

Apigee API Contest Winner at iPad Developers Camp - Netflix Actors »

The winners of the Apigee sponsored prize at the iPad developers camp was the "Netflix Actors" application. Check out a quick demo of the application below.

APIs for connected devices - the rush is on »

My favorite Superbowl ad was for Vizio HDTV - it was great to see about a dozen leading Web APIs showcased right up there with Beyonce.

Yesterday Michael Zimablist posted on the New York Times Bits blog about how the NYT’s content must now support a growing range of devices like the Vizio, from web-connected printers to mobile apps to the new iPad.

And the Wall Street Journal's Martin Peers asks if the iPad’s e-book store is the new model for the television industry, citing how Netflix is streaming to over 50 different devices to build new audience. Blockbuster is pursuing a similar strategy to deliver it’s movies to “nearly every connected device.”

So the rush is on… just like a decade ago when companies scrambled for a ‘www’ address, companies today are rushing to create APIs - making their data and services available to execute a multi-channel, multi-device strategy.

Next: what are some considerations for your API in supporting an ever-expanding number of devices?