With a vibrant digital economy on track to reach up to $360 billion in value by 2030, and a massive and tech-savvy population, Indonesia is a regional leader in app development, boasting the 12th largest developer community on Google Play in 2024, with over 10,400 active developers maintaining 33,800 live apps.

There’s the tremendous growth and untapped potential of the country’s app ecosystem, especially with AI’s rise and more online users, knowing that platform ecosystems like Android and iOS play a crucial role in how developers engage users and deliver innovation. 

The Digital Prosperity for Asia (DPA), in collaboration with Evaluserve, released a report on Indonesia’s platform ecosystems, exploring how users discover and engage with apps across platforms. iOS market share sharply declined to 6 percent in 2024, from nearly 12 percent the previous year, following a temporary government ban on iPhone 16 sales due to non-compliance with local regulations. Meanwhile, Android remains the dominant platform, holding over 90 percent of the market.

However, as negotiations between the Indonesian government and Apple have progressed, iOS is poised to gain market share moving forward. 

Generating Momentum for Interoperability
The DPA’s report highlights a strong social preference for Apple devices due to their prestige, making a shift toward iOS adoption likely. Developers are also creating iOS-compatible apps for Android peripherals, like Samsung’s Galaxy Watch, which works with iPhones via the Galaxy Wear app, although some features are limited due to Apple’s restrictions on third-party access.

As this trend gains momentum, app developers will be allowed to access users across all platforms. Most Indonesian app development targets the Android ecosystem because it is popular among Indonesian consumers and because of its openness and utility to developers, who can develop a single codebase that works on countless devices. 

However, compared to Android, iOS is a less open ecosystem, meaning iOS devices may not function well with non-iOS devices. As a result, iOS users may be locked into exclusively using peripherals native to iOS.

This means that as Apple’s market share recovers and continues to grow, we could see Indonesia’s app ecosystem evolve in ways where consumer choice is constrained, users face additional costs, and Indonesian app developers are priced out of accessing a larger share of the app market.

Encouraging interoperability is essential to keeping Indonesia’s digital ecosystem inclusive and competitive. If it isn’t addressed properly, Android and iOS users might end up in separate digital spaces, each with their own apps, features, and payment systems. This fragmentation would hold back interoperability innovation and make it harder for local solutions to scale.

As an example, we faced challenges when working with AYO, Indonesia’s largest super sport community app, on an Augmented Reality project covering different badminton, tennis, and padel groups. Development and testing costs on cutting-edge AR features rose steeply because the goal with AYO was to reach the widest range of platforms, which meant grappling with unaligned security standards across Android and iOS devices of different generations. 

Setting a Mandate for Flexibility
The government has demonstrated a clear willingness to negotiate forcefully with companies like Apple to secure investment and concessions for the local manufacturing industry. This should not be any different for our app developers.

While Apple’s proposed direct investments are clear wins that position Indonesia well as a potential hub for hardware manufacturing, the government can set a mandate for platform interoperability to ensure Indonesian app developers and businesses aren’t left behind as iOS makes ground.

On data migration, some categories, like health data, cannot be transferred from iOS to Android at all, even though it can be transferred from Android to iOS.
This means that developers of health apps on iOS have access to the Android market, but Android developers, comprising most Indonesian developers, cannot access users on iOS, who are locked into their ecosystem.

Here, the government can mandate that data migration tools across both platforms are robust and cover as wide a range of data as possible. As some developers have shown, this can be done safely and securely in a way that benefits consumers. 

Preventing platform lock-in helps to prevent market fragmentation and ensures that app developers of all scales, who started on any platform, have as much access to Indonesia’s entire potential user base. The fact that consumer choice is being eroded and significant barriers to entry are being put forth by Apple impacts innovation and is potentially a competition concern. 

Conclusion
Indonesia is the largest and most dynamic market in an already highly dynamic and digitalizing region. Through its engagements with Apple, the Indonesian government has demonstrated a willingness to intervene to secure the best possible deal for its local industries and citizens.

As its digital economy grows to be an even larger part of its GDP over time, we hope that the government extends due consideration to the health of its app ecosystems, and thus the prospects of its young and innovative developers as well.
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Agustian Hermanto is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner at design and research studio Sixty Two, a member of the Digital Prosperity for Asia (DPA).

The views expressed in the article are those of the author.