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Apple sold 77.32 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2018, generating more than $61 billion in revenues, according to data published by Statista. Not just for the sheer number of iPhones sold, 2018 is expected to be an eventful year, as Apple unveils new products and new versions of the iOS, forms relationships to take its offerings to the next level and evolves best practices for managing its various devices and gadgets, from the Mac to wearables to Apple TV.
Apple has always been known for its cutting-edge innovations, and its legacy continues. The company’s constant efforts at expanding the capability of its devices offer a great opportunity for iOS mobile app development as well as poses certain challenges. Any company offering iOS app development services needs to stay abreast of all the latest trends, to leverage these advancements and make their apps even more exciting and capable.
Whether it was the launch of Apple’s personal assistant, Siri, or the more recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), iOS mobile app development can be more powerful only if it exploits every new technology. The recent launch of Swift 4 has made iOS mobile app development, even more, user-friendly.
So, here’s a look at some of the latest trends and the challenges posed by them for iOS mobile app development.
Although iPhone is the most popular Apple product today, the other devices and gadgets from the company also need to be considered during iOS mobile app development. Developers need to consider that people who own iPhones may also be owners of iPads; and would want the app to be compatible with both.
Moreover, only 60% of iPhone users have upgraded to the latest iOS upgrade. This means there are iPhone users with different versions of the iOS installed. Both these come as challenges for iOS app development services, as they need to ensure compatibility across different screen sizes as well as different OS versions.
A major challenge for iOS developers is balancing app performance and device memory constraints. iPhone devices do not come with a garbage collection function, as do Android devices. This makes it difficult for providers of iPhone apps development services to manage memory with the app. The purpose of garbage collection is to identify and discard objects that are no longer needed by a program so that their resources can be reclaimed and reused.
There is a solution to this. Ensure that your provider of iPhone application development services uses Objective-C for writing the codes. This program comes with a remarkable memory management model and makes the task of iOS mobile app development easier.
What’s the worst thing that can happen when an app is released? It’s getting negative feedback from users, which stems from developers not having validated their app thoroughly enough to identify all the weak spots in various use cases. It is important for an app developer to gauge a user’s interaction with the app, which can be achieved during the beta test, which is a kind of external user acceptance testing. It is the second phase of software testing performed in a real environment by real users of the app to check the app’s functionality and identify any bugs and any possible breakdown.
iOS app development services need to be backed by a strong internet connection and network speed. While this may not be an issue for developers, it is important to consider use cases when the connection is slow, and the app uses rich media like streaming services and video application from the internet.
Fortunately, Apple has got just the right tool for iOS developers. Xcode, the integrated development environment (IDE) from Apple, provides a tool called Network Link Conditioner to simulate various network conditions covering reduced bandwidth, DNS delays, high latency, packet loss and more. A part of the process in iOS mobile app development should be to test the app using the Network Link Conditioner for stimulating different conditions.
iOS devices have been widely accepted by people due to their superior UX and clean design concept. To create experiences that are engaging, it is critical for developers to focus on a good and efficient UX/UI design.
Apps have evolved dramatically over the years, and so have their design and navigation. This, however, hire iOS developers who need to create an attractive user interface for different screen sizes.
Privacy and security have always been top priorities for Apple. As a result of that commitment, Apple has implemented a security technique called Sandboxing on iOS, from day one, to protect the device against buggy, exploited or otherwise compromised applications. The sandbox isolates an app from the rest of the system and creates a private environment of data and information for each app, which cannot be intruded on or used by any other app.
During iOS mobile app development, developers need to include a sandbox rule called “entitlement,” which allows the program to access the needed resource defined in that entitlement. The developer should only enable the entitlements that are needed to allow his program to run and nothing more.
Apple’s App Store has more than two million apps available for download. This is a small number compared to the apps that were not approved to be included in this prestigious marketplace for apps. Apple has stringent guidelines in place for approving apps. Many apps are rejected due to a simple rule violation. What is even more excruciating for providers of iPhone apps development service is that Apple changes these rules frequently to protect the integrity of their devices.
Against this backdrop, it’s important for iOS app development services to be completely familiar with Apple’s guidelines and the latest updates to minimize the risk of rejection after so much time and money has been invested in creating the app.
While iOS mobile app development is exciting, developers need to work hard to remain up-to-date with innovations and latest techniques to ensure a robust mobility solution.
