10 Common Mistakes an Ios App Developer Makes

1. Little knowledge is always dangerous: It is often found that, new iOS developers want to create an awesome App without understanding the basic concepts. The most important part is the Terminology i.e. the common terms used in iOS. They simply ignore learning those basic yet most important stuffs and jumps into coding! This will give you little pleasure for little time but later you have to pay a huge for your ignorance. It is always recommended to learn all the basic concepts of any technology before you start your development process. In fact, in retrofitting work, it is noticed people starts working on the project without any KT i.e. Knowledge Transfer or Knowledge share. This is highly inefficient way of developing any product and especially if it belongs to Apple. I would like to say No information is far better than little information.

2. Don't be hurry: Why Hurry? Many iOS developers want to showcase their talent by doing some assignments quickly. They are not at all focused what they are doing; they are just focused about the output without any knowledge on the core logic. Many times, they argue to defend it by saying we are result oriented! Is this really the fair result? It might be looking great or functioning properly; but, is it optimized? Does its performance degrade? Then? Most importantly, are you serious enough about the core logic of the application? Your code might be looking great from one view; but it might be breaking any other module without your knowledge. You have to again fix it in future. So, it's always better to make the things in a perfection manner; not in less time. Less time consuming without perfection is not at all productive; it's actually inefficiency!!

3. Redesign is avoided by newbie: This is yet another common mistake found with iOS developers; they hesitate to make the design process repeatedly. They think they are highly efficient and confident in grasping the requirements of the app and so, in a single shot they can build its architecture. Let me clear one thing, “Nothing is perfect in this world”. The platform for which iOS developer creates app is not either perfect otherwise iOS v1 to v9 does not exist! So, how can your app be perfect in design without any iteration? So, redesign your work, again design and redesign for improved logic, improved user experience and improved efficiency. It will never harm your productivity rather improve it to a large extend.

4. Improper Data management: Many iOS developers used to take the help of XML for data storing. This is a ridiculous system of data management. It not only hampers the effectiveness of the application; but also creates unnecessary burden on the application. When the data get modified, overtime the XML file will be modified and restored in the folder- An absolute unproductive way of data management. Stop using this! Use SQLite for the same. It's there to serve the stuff in a superior approach. It may take some time to learn the query language and all; but once your learned it you can empower your iOS app with highly efficient data management tool of the industry.

5. User Experience sometimes goes in gutter! As an expert iOS developer, you should always focus on the user experience; because this is the biggest priority for Apple. Many iOS developers are found to focus only on the functionalities of the iOS app; they ignore the user experience meanwhile. This is really a bad practice; because this may lead to rejection of your iOS app during screening by Apple. So, make sure you are giving as importance to User Experience as that to the functionality sections. Logic without effect is useless!!

6. Versioning is avoided by many: Many iOS app developer are absolutely unaware of Versioning! Versioning is something that keeps track of your every change made in codebase. It's like a source code management tool. Every iOS developer should use this software in order to recover if anything goes wrong. In fact, developer can recover or revert or roll back his codebase to previous versions without any hassle. Again, it is also noticed that the iOS developer who knows the use of Versioning tool, they used to misuse it i.e. for every small change they commit the code. This is not at all good; it put pressure on the tool with unnecessary versions that are hardly used by the developer at any point of time. So, use versioning tool in a professional manner.

7. Cache management may be faulty: Cache management is extremely important for any application development process may it be web app, iOS app or any other types of smart app. It becomes even more important when we are dealing with a device that runs on 512MB RAM. But, this part is highly ignored by iOS developers; they focuses more on functionality and look n and feel of the application but ignores the cache management. Improper cache management means bad user experience. So be cautious!!

8. Not considering future technologies to adopt: Many iOS developer behave like herds; they don't pay interest to learn new technologies or even techniques. New technologies like HTML5, CSS3 etc can make the task of an iOS developer much easier than ever. Through these technologies, you can build much consistent and efficient iOS apps for your user. It also can help you in building light weight app that will help your iOS app to render smoothly on the devices like iPhone or iPad.

9. No priority to user interest: This is yet another concern for many iOS app developer. They want to integrate the latest iCloud service in their application; which is very good. But, are they keeping any option for those who don't have an iCloud account or who don't want to use it in their app. So, as a smart iOS app developer, you must think more about user's interest rather than yours that will in turn give you a better platform to build enterprise standard iOS app.

10. Improper Apple Pay integration: This is also an important mistake done by many iOS app developer. While integrating Apple Pay to their app, they forget about the users who don't have an Apple Pay account or about those who belongs to a region where there is no Apple Pay. So, think about them; after all, users are your biggest assets.

Mindfire Solutions has been providing iPhone development services for more than 8 years now and has been helping its customers put extremely interactive apps on the Appstore. If you are interested to develop an interactive iOS app for your business, send in your requirements to sales at Mindfire Solutions dot com.

Smartphone Market Share a Brief Comparison

“Android, iOS and Windows are three major players of smart phone industry. There was a time, when smart phone refers to iPhone or Blackberry; but things get changed tremendously and now the leader is Android and don’t think about the status of Blackberry- it is limited to as low as just 0.3% of the industry share! So the competition is now between Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS with a little ray of hope for Microsoft’s Windows in the coming future. Let’s discuss the market share of these smart operating systems and the triggering factors that has changed everyone’s life in the industry.”

Android- The smart Operating System Giant! Before a decade, things were in favour of iOS and Blackberry; but now the industry is flooded with Google's Android devices. The ecosystem is so large that it seems larger than everything. As per the data of IDC (International Data Corporation), the Android market share is around 82.8% of the global market!! The budget smart phone and open source operating system concept of Android made it possible over years. Though, the share was little more in past year during same period i.e. Q2 2014 with 84.8%. Still Google is the clear winner in terms of number of Android devices shipped this quarter as per IDC information. Many OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) like Samsung, Huawei, Xiomi, Lenovo and LG contributed tremendously in the global market for Android. On the other hand, Indian manufacturer like Micromax, Spice mobile and Intex also contributing as per their potential. Anyway, Android is the smart phone leader in the industry and it is expected to intact its position for another 5 years without any fear; if IDC assumption is considered as true.

iOS- For those who loves quality over anything: Apple is for those people who love quality over everything else. Apple does not allow anyone to produce hardware devices for its flagship operating system i.e. iOS. With Apple's iPhone and iPad iOS is at 2nd position with a hooping market share of 13.9% in Q2 2015 as against 11.6% in Q2 2014. So, it is good news for Apple lovers that, there is a growth of Apple's iOS devices in last quarter. Though many gossips are there over internet for the growth of iOS device i.e. iPhone6 that has contributed maximum; but neither of them is absolutely true. Many tried to make the industry confused by spreading news like iPhone6’s large screen helped Apple's market share to grow. But that is not true; because Google's Android Lollipop runs in many 5.5 inch or 6 inch screen now. Then, why their market share could not grow? Obviously, it is all about quality that Apple provides!

Windows- Still struggling to understand the user DNA! After the acquisition of Nokia, Microsoft tried a lot to be a second Apple; but all remain as a daydream only!! Now, Microsoft realized that the venture for Nokia mobile acquisition was a wrong decision. In fact, that was the time to concentrate more on its Windows Operating System instead of entering into the market with both hardware and OS. Lots of loss, lots of layouts and followed by a strong stroke from industry made Microsoft rethink its business policy. The CEO of Microsoft is now clearly announcing that in coming years they are going to revive windows operating system without much focus and money investment over Nokia. Anyway, Microsoft's Windows operating System has seen a slight growth in market share in this quarter from 2.5% (Q2 2014) to 2.6% in Q2 2015. Though there is decrease of 4.2% market share in Q2Q comparison in 2015. Now, Microsoft is going to focus only on few Lumia smart phones that may help it revive in the industry.

Devices that play important role in market: Apple's iPhone and iPad, Samsung, Lenovo (along with Moto), Huawei, Xiaomi, LG and ZTE are playing strongly in the global market for iOS and Android. On the other hand, Nokia's Lumia and Backberry are the in-house OEM products for Windows and Blackberry OS respectively. For Android Operating System, the biggest giant is Samsung and especially its Galaxy models are simply getting outstanding response from around the globe. In fact, Samsung itself shares the major part of the Android Eco that is larger than next 5 player’s together share. In developing countries like India and China, manufacturers like Micromax and Xiaomi plays important role in contributing to the market share of Android. For Apple, it’s only iPhone and iPad. For Windows, it was only Nokia but recently, Samsung made an agreement with Microsoft to produce OEM devices for Windows as well to keep its place safe for future. Now, you may find Samsung devices with Windows OS installed.

Smart app developer and their contribution: Apple's app store contains millions of iOS apps with soaring quality. If you iOS app development and would want to get it to the app store, you need to craft it very wisely and thoroughly; because, Apple may reject it at any moment of time. On the contrary, you can freely launch your app in Google Play Store without much hassle and worry for a permission. However, your app may not be successful if you are not able to get good rates by users; but that is a different story. Hence, smart developers inclining towards Google's Play Store as a result, the volume of Android apps is getting larger over time. In fact it is bigger than that of iOS apps in the industry with figures like 1,6 million Android apps against 1.5 million iOS apps as of July 2015. On the other hand, users will get enough option in Android Play Store to choose one from a lot. The number of downloads in Android Play Store is much higher than that of iOS like 70% more downloads w.r.t. iOS. But, if we consider revenue; here Apple makes a giant leap since iOS apps are usually more quality focused and of higher price. Anyway, we find sometimes quality remain suppressed by the size of the app, feature of the app and most importantly user experience of the app. User loves to install tiny size app instead of high quality heavy app having lots of unnecessary features that they might never use.

Verdict: growth of Smartphone industry in future is a damn sure: Anyway, we have reached at the end of our topic. Now, it’s time for Verdict. Undoubtedly Android is going to dominate the industry in coming decade; still there is no certainty in IT industry where IT giant like Microsoft get rejected by the industry in no time. But whatever may be the situation, the growth of smart phone industry is a damn sure; well in future the term Smartphone may be replaced with anything else, then that will remain at the top in the industry.

Whatever be your preference, Mindfire Solutions is clearly a leader in Mobile App development and has been wowing customers ever since with its flawless mobile apps. If you need a mobile app for your business just send in an email to sales at Mindfire Solutions dot com.

Making Developers Aware of iOS 8 Features

The latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system is now available in the market and showcases numerous improvements from notifications to the Touch ID sensor. It has many additions as well as improvements to its credit, like the introduction of the new programming language called Swift, integration of information related to health as well as smart home gadgets.

Developers already had their access to iOS 8 since June so that they get the option to make them able to explore the features, understand the changes and subsequently test the apps. The iOS 8 provides the developers with the scope of working on an adaptive user interface with APIs characterized by context sensitivity, extended functionality, a totally new programming language and many more.

The iOS 8 has over 4000 new APIs that have resulted in making the apps bolder and more responsive. These features are listed below:

Adaptive User Interface: The introduction of Auto Layout has compelled developers to think differently about user interfaces. Previously the developers had to keep in mind the different ways the users may come across the apps specifically the landscape and the portrait meaning the horizontal as well as the vertical views. Adoption of Auto Layout has been successful in getting rid of this particular issue. It is a tool that helps in simplifying the process involved in fitting the apps to screens in the developer suite of Apple named Xcode.

Home Kit Framework: This feature connects all devices in a certain location and is used for discovering devices at home, configuring along with providing them with necessary commands with respect to the user’s requirements. The latest version also provides for grouping of the actions on the basis of selected zones which can further be triggered with the help of Siri. The basic zones that have the provision of configuration through the framework are Rooms, Homes, Accessories, Services and Zones (upstairs or downstairs).

PhotoUI.framework: With the help of the Photo kit framework, the developer or rather the user gets the option of editing photos directly in the camera roll app without importing those as it was in the earlier versions. The photo kit feature incorporates a thread safe element to fetch, catch thumbnails and assets of full size. The framework requests changes to the assets, receives notification on the changes that are made by other apps along with the conversion of the digital assets in a lucid and easy to use format.

Health Kit framework: It is a relatively new feature that provides a framework to the user for the complete management of the information related to the health of the individual. This feature has made the sharing of health related information easier for the different apps irrespective of the source of the same as to if it is coming from devices connected to an iOS device or being manually entered by the user. The information of the user’s health is then stored in a secure and centralized location letting the user see all of the same displayed through the Health app.

Cloud Kit Framework: This feature is related to managing the content that has the provision of being changed in specific instances when the app has to run on several devices. It thereby allows the developer or the user to design the apps in such a way so as to gain control over handling the data. The iCloud storage are of four types namely, key value storage, iCloud document storage, Core Data storage and Cloud Kit storage.

App Extension: A great feature of the iOS 8, App Extension enables the user to make changes and modify the architecture of the system in a systematic way like handling the customization of the notification bar, addition of filters to the photo library amongst many others.

Handoff Mechanism: This unique mechanism helps the user to start an activity on a particular device and then resume the same without any further complication on another device. It is a great feature of the iOS 8 that offers the user the comfort of continuing a process or an activity on different devices without undergoing the pain of shuffling them again and again.

Local Authentication Framework: This framework named as the TouchID adds an extra cover of security to the apps that can use the feature for the purpose of authenticating a user prior to accessing of the complete or some of the content that may be stored in the app. It asks for a pass code the moment a user tries to get access to a particular app.

Notifications in the 8th version of the iOS are easily accessible, Siri is a lot more user friendly and responsive. It also enables the use of the TouchID by third party apps, navigation of mails have been made easier by a single swipe. With the latest version, the keyboard has become smarter, photos and camera have become more advanced, the Health kit feature results in unification of medical information while Home kit provides for a smarter and master control of the home. The totally revamped version has allowed for the group functioning of the messages, the continuity feature acts a bridge to link Macs and Mobiles along with advanced family sharing options that lets the members of a family spread media files to up to 6 people. To get maximum benefits of iPhone development, you may consider hiring services of a certified iPhone development company.

We provide iPhone development services. To hire iPhone developer India, please reach out to us at Mindfire Solutions.