Apple iOS-based smartphone users have a high platform loyalty rate of 90%. So, until and unless you are good with losing out on the viewership and related sales amongst the approximate 1 billion iOS subscriber population, you need an iOS-based app for your business.
iOS smartphones always tend to stay a step ahead most of Android smartphones, in terms of work speed and efficiency. In fact, a $400 iPhone may outperform a $2000 latest android smartphone in these aspects. The reason is the ‘fragmentation’ amongst android hardware and software.
To be more concise, android smartphones, developed by varied mobile development companies tend to provide it with their customized skins and interfaces. Apple, on the other hand, urges its applications developers to provide their mobile apps with the same look and feel; to ensure the users enjoy a uniform user experience, but with a new high.
Apple iOS app development thus requires a delegated process to be followed that is enumerated below.
6 Important Steps to Develop an App for iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod)
iOS app development, in a way, is simpler than Android app development; as the developers need to follow a set pattern of guidelines provided by Apple. Let us understand the process involved in further detail.
1. Innovating on the app idea
As for all business apps, to make an app successful, first and foremost you require a business idea (if possible, a unique business idea!). For this, you need to try and analyze a market gap and then create an app that shall provide a solution to this gap. You would also have to conduct proper market research in order to analyze how much and how long does it take to make an app. If the idea is suitably viable in the current market scenario, fulfills user requirements as well as your budget provisions, you should be going ahead with it.
2. App store procedural guidelines
The iOS app store provides a clear set of app development guidelines, to ensure that all their apps provide a certain degree of interface design, functionality and efficiency levels to its users, despite being developed by any developer and entrepreneur. Complete knowledge and following of these guidelines is a must to enable the iOS platform to host your mobile app. Remember that, Apple will only publish your app when it meets their requirements for the design, security, user privacy, and other aspects.
3. App design is an important part of iOS app development
App design is integral to all mobile apps, as it defines how an app would look to and communicate with its users. It is more so for the iOS platforms as Apple provides its app developers with a complete page of do’s and don'ts for the look and feel of all its mobile apps. To analyze the effectiveness of your design, you could wireframe(a loose adaptation of your app design) your mobile app with all important aspects of its User interface and user experience you tend to inculcate.
4. Defining the system architecture that would be involved
Before developing a mobile app, Apple requires its developers to categorize the varied aspects of the app under the data, software, and user interface headings. Only, after this can you step onto the actual app development process. This is mainly done in the MVC (model view controller) paradigm phase and helps the iOS apps become robust and scalable in the long run. The frontend and backend developments need to begin at this stage.
5. The actual app development
iOS app development requires the app developers to simultaneously work and build on the front end and back end aspects of a mobile app. The front end generally requires user interface developments, complete with the color scheme, pushbuttons, content placements as well as the functionalities to cache data through the designated databases. To this end, front end developers need to work on mockups and test them for user experience and efficiency before the final deployment.
The backend development aspect generally includes the creation of databases that would store user Logins, profiles, and other app required data, apart from server-side functionalities, their maintenance, social media links, other third-party data integrations, and push notifications that become a part of the overall user experience.
Also, take care that your app functions well in all modes and outlooks including the portrait, landscape or night mode. Remember to choose between Xcode or the Swift technology platforms for iOS developments as per your requirements.
6. Testing needs to be done
Before app deployment, you need to ensure that you optimize all app functionalities to work efficiently while consuming minimum battery power. You would also have to test your final app on all paradigms started under the iOS app development guidelines. For this, you would have to develop a test case out of it, automate a script for varied scenarios to test the app including device testing, security, and compliance testing, usability testing, and overall performance testing. These tests should be performed both manually and in an automated environment, to effectively get featured on the app store.
You would then be required to submit your app to Apple with a unique App id and an Apple provisioning profile. An apple listing would also be required to be created.
If possible, get featured on top
Developing and listing an app on the iOS platforms, with an agile (fast to development) approach is only half the battle won. You would also require strategizing a mobile marketing plan and App Store Optimization (ASO) in place to get your app viewed by your intended users. So, do not waste time and get onto the job ASAP!
COMMENTS