Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is a stock in many investors’ portfolios. One thing we have been adamant about in our coverage is Apple’s ability to protect its brand, and incorporate its newest technologies into future designs and iterations of its product. With the Apple iPhone X, a number of important changes were made to the technology. In this column, we discuss a change that is being mandated by Apple which suggests it is getting more aggressive in requiring developers to incorporate the newest technology. What this means is that Apple could indirectly be forcing consumers to update phones sooner, not only protecting its brand but boosting sales.
Starting April 1, 2018, Apple will require all new iPhone and universal apps to natively support the iPhone X Super Retina display, as well as requiring new iOS apps to be built with iOS 11 SDK or later and new Apple Watch apps to be built with the watchOS 4 SDK or later. Apple’s Developer Program notified developers about the new requirements in an email.
Apple’s push for Super Retina display support could be taken either as obvious or as suggestive of future development trends. The company has historically used similar developer requirements to guarantee support for larger iPhone screen sizes, so it’s no surprise that Apple will require developers to include higher-resolution Super Retina assets and notch-abiding UI layouts roughly six months after the iPhone X’s release.
On the other hand, some may take the requirement as a hint that more Super Retina devices — or similarly proportioned iPhones — are coming later this year.
In previous years, Apple mandated that new apps include 64-bit support after the release of iOS 8 and comply with a new “flat” visual style after the debut of iOS 7, heralding widespread changes across its devices.
But more than two years after its release, Apple has not imposed a similar screen support requirement for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which didn’t represent any major directional shift for iPads or other Apple products.
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