Apple (AAPL +1.18%) took the bold move of introducing its own programming language on Monday called Swift. To date, Apple has primarily used Objective-C as a language, which is starting to show its age, as it is over 30 years old. With that age comes considerable baggage for developers. Swift hopes to make life easier for developers.
Apple highlighted how young many of its developers are, which shows how vibrant the platform is. While it may be a short-term hurdle to ask all of its developers to learn a new language, it's a small obstacle that Apple can easily clear so long as it keeps developers focused on the end goal: millions of iOS users that pay up for content.
It's strategically similar to Apple's transition to 64-bit architecture in its A-chips last year, although that's a very different context. Swift is all about setting up a long-term roadmap for the future of the platform.
In this segment of Tech Teardown, Erin Kennedy discusses Apple's Swift with Evan Niu, CFA.
