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Why a Brand needs an Open API

This is a great article by Adam Kleinberg on how a brand and enabling third parties to write exciting applications and mashups targeting new channels via your Api is so important.

The resources required to produce a website and accompanying iPhone app can be significant - what if you invested in your business/eCommerce API and a referral/developer programme instead?

The world becomes your development partner and ANYONE can start creating applications backed by YOUR business.

Take Android as an example - it's gaining market share at such a rapid pace that you will need an Android App soon to stay in the game as it's not a sector you can afford to ignore. Pouring all your money into a specific vendor channel (say iPhone) could mean you are left out in the cold when other technologies/forms/channels become viable. With an API in place it would be a simple, cheaper exercise in creating an Android application on top of the API calls - and the API gives you options in how you go about this; give the API docs to an off-shore resource, in-house team or let some bright spark come to you with their app or idea.

Sure you will always need YOUR website but an API "powers the possible" - who knows what killer mashup someone out there could dream up tomorrow - and your business could benefit from it with thousands of new sales. You have the infrastructure to process sales and transactions - let the other 6,891,463,699-ish people (world population as of today) figure out how to make money out of it for you.

2011 - year of the API! (Oh and Geckoboard, 2011 is all about the dashboard)

Happy New Year Everyone!

Comments

ADAM KLEINBERG said…
If 2011 becomes the year of the API, I'll be a happy camper. Thanks for the link James.

Adam

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