Category: Mobile App Development

7 iOS App Development Basics You Should Know About

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Though Apple’s app store did not pioneer the app distribution services, nobody would disagree with the fact that Apple had brought about a revolution in creating and distributing mobile applications. Now, Android retains a mountainous global share in the mobile app market. Yet the demand for iOS apps is still on the rise.

Mobile app development companies are mushrooming everywhere, as the requirement for app development services are getting larger. It doesn’t require you to put much effort to find out an iOS app developer these days. But if what you wish for is to travel abreast of those winning apps, you need to have some basic knowledge of iOS app development basics before hiring a developer, which directly influence the factors that foster success.

The Application Development Framework

Cocoa is the object oriented foundation framework used for developing applications to run on the iOS. It uses the root class NSObject, which defines all the basic object behavior and implements classes representing the primitive types (strings, numbers), collections (arrays, dictionaries) etc.

Internalization, file management, accessing system entities such as ports etc. are other functions that can be carried out. So, it is absolutely necessary for an iOS app developer to possess all the necessary knowledge about the iOS development framework.

The Importance of an Appealing Application Design

On the app store, the first thing that people will notice about your app is its UX. If you can’t impress consumers with an appealing and user-friendly UX, there will be a negligible chance for your app to surpass the oppositions in the market.

Read also: Is iPhone App Development Profitable?

To survive the fierce competition, a great user experience is unavoidable. And for a good user experience, creative application design is very crucial. Many inexperienced app developers don’t give much importance to creativity in app design. So, expert designers should be hired for this purpose.

Bringing Innovative Solutions to Problems

The demand for innovative, out of the box solutions are high in the iOS app development market. More and more diverse apps presenting newer ideas flood the app store every day.

But, from the developer’s point of view, these creative designs are source of misconceptions and inexactness. Extra effort and time should be put, in order to understand and code the new concepts. Even minor errors can impose a grave threat to the overall budget.

Compatibility Check

From the original iPhone to the new iPhone SE, iPad to iPad Pro and even the iTouch; the number of Apple devices that use iOS apps are many. The task to ensure compatibility with these multiple devices is a Herculean one. As a result, neglected and unobserved errors lead to the most common issues. So, it is important to ensure proper testing is carried out to rectify the encountered mistakes.

Compliance to Apple’s Terms and Conditions

It is important for an iOS app development company to have a clear idea about Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines and the Human Interface Guidelines for app approval. By ensuring that your apps abide by these rules and regulations before submitting to the iTunes App store, it will be possible to prevent additional costs and delay in launch that will be applicable if it gets rejected.

Swift

As a developer language, Apple’s Swift is being widely adopted as the primary programming language or is used in combination with objective-C. The interoperability with Objective-C has allowed incorporating Swift’s features into existing projects, accounting for greater acceptance and adoption levels within the small time period after its release. It is predicted that Swift will be the future of iOS development.

Rise in the Popularity of IoT Projects

The IoT technology helps to connect a number of devices with the internet. That means connecting and controlling cars, wearables, TV, various home appliances and even robots from the web.

Gartner forecasts that over 6.4 billion IoT devices will be in use worldwide in 2016, and it will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. Many iOS app development companies are already targeting the IoT market, and are working on side projects to reap the benefits that will be created as the demand for IoT devices and services will get high.

Why Complex Designs May Hurt Mobile App Development

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Right from inception of an idea to making it into what can be vaguely called as a properly functioning app, the whole mobile app development process is not painless and straightforward. Be it windows, android or iPhone app development, the toil and determination that needs to be put is very much demanding.

Many things need to be foreseen, so as to avoid risks that may come up due to negligence or time constraints. Unattended minor difficulties during the initial phases can become your serious concerns during the end phase of development.

The major drawback is that the developers don’t decide how the apps should be designed all by themselves. It is a group decision where client preferences are given prime importance.

An idea that is too complex for code development

The initial task carried out after conceptualizing an application is creating its design. This is usually done in graphics editors such as Photoshop or prototyping platforms such as Marvel. Usually, an impressive design is created for demonstration purposes and then it is agreed upon by both parties viz., the mobile app development company and the client.

Read also:5 Reasons Why Mobile Game Development Companies Fail to Win the Global Market

The real peril surfaces when the design is converted into codes. The model created can pose many problems in getting materialized. For e.g.; the representation can include too much animation that will demand a lot more of the development time and considerable increase in the project budget.

Designers design with a market-oriented approach. It is mainly aimed at convincing the customer, without any consideration towards the coding process. The ways and methods used for creating designs and implementing code for the same design are totally different. What looks easy for designing may not be so for coding.

Distinction between a prototype and an actual app

A prototype of the app is necessary, mainly due to its contribution during the mobile app development process. It serves as a model of what the app should look and function like, as a final product.

Although, creating the prototype model has its own advantages, the snags too are many. The most unfavorable thing is that once the actual product is completed, there is no significance for the prototype of the app, and it should be literally just thrown away. This is serious for a mobile app development company, since the development of the prototype in itself is a time consuming and costly process.

Circumstances come too often, in which coding can’t be done due to the complexity of the designs. Once there is any need for improvement or reconstruction in the design, the time and effort of the designer in building the former prototypes is wasted.

The large gap between using real data and assumed data

The user inputs that are used during the app design and implementation period are always unsophisticated numbers, names and other such data. This prevents from getting a clear idea about the app behavior and responses, when they get into the hands of users once the app is launched.

But the real picture is much more consequential. Most of the behavioral pitfalls will actually be evident only at the time of beta testing or most probably after that. What this means is that, your app needs updating even after releasing it to the public. This can shoot the overall development cost accompanied with considerable loss of time and effort for the same project.

What is desirable?

There are a lot of persons involved in the conception and design phase of app creation – the designers, developers, clients, managers and marketers to name a few. Not everybody has got coding knowledge. Most are not even aware of the app development processes.

So the important step that a mobile app development company should take would be ensuring that everyone does have a basic understanding of the actual process. There should be collaborative effort to analyze the possibilities and impossibilities under the given resources.

Cheapest iPhone Ever Launched! Introducing the iPhone SE

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Apple unveiled smaller iPhone SE with the same processing and graphics performance of the larger flagship 6S, but with a lower price tag. The announcement was delivered at an event conducted in San Francisco on Monday, introducing SE along with the new iPad Pro, successor to the iPad Air 2 and several bands of the Apple watch.

Apple said that it is going to be the “most affordable” iPhone that apple has ever produced and “the most powerful 4-inch phone ever”.

iPhone SE is packed with 4K video capture capability from the 12 megapixel iSight camera. Launching at a starting price of $399, the iPhone SE will be available in 110 countries by the end of May.

The new 9.7-inch diagonal screen iPad Pro corresponds to the original iPad screen size unlike the previous version that featured a 12.9 inch display screen. It will come in 3 different storage sizes with a mammoth 256 GB version memory. Selling prices will begin at $599 (32 GB), $749 (128 GB), and $899 (256 GB).

“We believe that iPad is the perfect expression of the future of computing,” chief executive Tim Cook said about iPad Pro.

iPad Pro will be available from the early April. The device comes with 40% lesser screen glare and 25% improved brightness. iPad Pro uses four-channel light sensors to adjust the white balance in response to the ambient light. It will be released in four different colors : silver, gold, black and rose gold.

10 Stupid Reasons Your iOS App is Getting Rejected

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

In 2016, the global app economy is expected to raise up to $143 billion. The average number of app submission per day in the iTunes App Store for the first month of the year 2016 is 2,261.

It could really stress you out waiting for Apple’s approval when you have already spent months or years of development time before launching your app. One critical error, and you have to start over again with app store submission.

It is important for an iOS app development company to have a clear idea about Apple’s technical and design criteria for app review. Following are some of the most common reasons associated with app rejection that should be taken careful note of in order to avoid approval delay.

1.Say no to crashes and bugs – Apple is renowned for rejecting apps on the basis of crashes and bugs present. Sometimes, iOS app development companies do not make proper use of the testing facilities available. Apple suggests the application to be thoroughly tested before submitting it for the review process.

2.Privacy policy – Apps that try to use private data without acquiring previous consent immediately falls outside the list of apps that can be approved by Apple.

A privacy policy should be in place to use account information of users.

Read also: Is iPhone App Development Profitable?

3. Quality user interface – The apps should follow the guidelines for user interface given by Apple. What Apple recommends are clean, refined and user-friendly interfaces. Follow Apple’s design guides and UI Design Do’s and Dont’s before coding. They have directions for formatting contents, touch controls, spacing, resolution etc. For more excellent tips and concepts, Apple recommends to read their article titled, iOS Human interface guidelines.

4. In sufficient information – Incomplete and defective information could be a reason that will get you rejected by Apple. All missing information should be updated before submitting for review as specified in the App Review Information section of iTunes Connect. Proper and accurate details should be given for your application features, procedures, special configurations, contract information, and other required particulars. Demo videos are encouraged for complicated and perplexing concepts.

5. Advertisements – If your app makes room for advertisements it will be using IDFA, which is an identifier for advertisements used by Apple. It should be properly indicated whether your app use or don’t use this identifier. If you haven’t specified that your app uses IDFA, but it does, your app will be rejected from being submitted to the store. Also, the ads should be checked for any working error.

6.Compliance to specifications and standards – The apps submitted should comply to several standards and specifications provided by Apple Store Guidelines. Applications should not contain defamatory or offensive content. For e.g., apps should not contain references that may defame a religion, or culture or ethnic group.

It should abide by the legal terms and conditions as per Apple’s trademark list and copyright guidelines. Imitation of names, icons, and themes of any Apple products are highly discouraged.

7.Flawed descriptions – You should be careful to provide descriptions that could accurately match with your app’s functionality. Irrelevant descriptions could give you hard time getting inside the app store. Don’t copy the name and description of other applications.

8. Do not mislead users – Always remember to publicize only what your app provides. If your app mislead users by advertising features that are not included, it is certain to get discarded.

9. Avoid duplicity – Do not submit similar apps for review repeatedly. Apple suggests you to combine all of them into one. Also your app shouldn’t look like duplicate copies of existing successful apps. Even if you’re going for an old idea, something new should be offered like a fresh function or design.

10.Maintaining lasting value – Sometimes, without any visible reasons your app may be disallowed to the app store. An app without much functions or engaging content are the ones that may not interest users for long. Apple doesn’t find such apps to be of enough value to be approved.

The bottom line is that iOS app development companies should take every measure to get approval in the first chance by adhering to Apple’s review guidelines, thereby preventing additional costs and delay in product launch.

4 Awesome Tips for Profitable iPhone App Development

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Mobile app development has become an important formula for the prosperity of any industry today. Within a short time, apps have penetrated almost every known industry — entertainment, health, finance, education, business, communication, art, travel — you name it.

Over 22 % of the global Smartphone market share is held by Apple’s iPhone devices. By November 2014, Apple reached 1 billion phones in sales.

So is iPhone App Development Profitable Anyway?

Well, yes it is! There are people who make huge revenues from a successful single app alone. The question is very relevant, but should be asked in accordance with the particular app that you are about to develop. There are cross platform apps for sure, but here we are focusing on apps that target the iPhone owners alone.

The iPhone market is growing. So does the iPhone app market. Even though Android is the leading app platform with 1.6 million apps available, Apple app store leads closely in the second place with over 1.5 million apps. The App store is flooded with even more apps every single day.

The major factor that affects the profitability of an app is the production cost. Single platform iOS apps costs lesser than cross-platform apps and apps developed for the android platform, since the Android OS is highly fragmented.

Some Tips to Develop Profitable iPhone Apps

IPhone app development, or any other app development for that case, is not a straightforward process. It needs thoughtful development ideas, careful design, planned execution and months of teamwork and continuous effort post-launch to improve the app’s visibility. Keep a check on the factors below that may help to ensure your app’s success.

What the Market Needs

“There are so many apps out there, it’s an extremely crowded market so that the barrier to entry is so low and the barrier to success is so high. But you’re not necessarily aiming to have the biggest game out there, so there’s still room to make a business out of it if you’re trying to capture a certain audience.” Trefry, Gigantic Mechanic.

We always see a mighty competition that is going on in the market. This is true for the starters and the big bosses of the industry. So, it is important that you do a thorough research on whether the idea for your app is inside of an over saturated market or an opportunity market.

Design Uncomplicated Apps

The most common mistake that developers and designers tend to make is, building the app as complex as they can. One should understand the difference between a great app and a complicated app. The developer should not see app development as an opportunity to apply or demonstrate all his programming knowledge.

Abiding to Apple’s App Guidelines

Getting approval from Apple is the first footstep that you need to take after an iPhone app development. Right from the development phase, you should give prime importance to designing your app in accordance with the Apple’s rules and regulations. This will save you the time that you may need to spend waiting and revising, after your apps get rejected by Apple.

Post-Launch Marketing of your App

Once your app is in the app store, you may need to focus on matters such as improving your app’s search visibility, taking continuous effort to get to the top app chart, how and when to put offers and discounts, devising ways to sell more in-app s etc. What every great app needs for its success is a strong marketing strategy. This includes all the SEO activities and marketing techniques.

While doing marketing for an app, your steps could become fruitful only if you provide them with the right content. Even if you put in your best efforts, if your app is not good enough, the end result can disappoint you.

The first thing that should get your attention is your app icon, name, and the screenshots. Studies conducted show that, the customers take their decision whether to download an app or not, within the first 2 seconds after they land on your page. Even if your app does have some great features to offer and amazing interactivity that is detailed in the description section, this will give hardly any advantage since most people are not interested readers.

You can give publicity even before you release your app. You can kick start by sharing it with your friends, colleagues and family on social networking sites and asking them to write about it on their wall. You should follow up with them after the release of your app in the app store. Along with that, you can seek all viable methods including conventional methods to promote your app.

At the end of the day, it all depends on how you measure your success. For some, it is just the profit factor but for others it is the user satisfaction that might be valued more.

Google Became Can Answer More Difficult Questions

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Google announced a major update on its search app, now it can give answer for more difficult queries.

The app will provide real answers for question instead of just providing web searches in numerous areas.

Ask Google “Who was Dakota Johnson’s mom in the movie?” and you’ll receive a response of Melanie Griffith, Johnson’s real-life mother, rather than Jennifer Ehle, who played the role of the mom in the movie “50 Shades of Grey.” That one’s still tricky for Google because you didn’t specify the name of the film in your question.

“We’re still growing and learning, which means we make mistakes,” Satyajeet Salgar, Product Manager said.

“The Google app is starting to truly understand the meaning of what you’re asking. We can now break down a query to understand the semantics of each piece so we can get at the intent behind the entire question”, Salgar said.

“That lets us traverse the Knowledge Graph much more reliably to find the right facts and compose a useful answer. And we can build on this base to answer harder questions”, he added.

It also has the ability to answer complex combinations where one or more answers are required.

Now Google’s Mobile Search Will Reflect Public Posts, Profiles

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Facebook allows Google’s mobile search on Android to “crawl and index its app” to reflect public posts from Facebook.

Wall Street Journal, which first reported the strategic partnership, quoted a spokesperson for Alphabet (Google’s new parent holding company) as confirming the announcement. The report adds that the listings will appear as ‘deep links’.

With this new initiative, photos and posts that are public also will reflect in Google’s mobile search.

Recently Google signed with Twitter to reflect tweets directly in its mobile and app search to boost engagement.

It ensures that real-time results are reflected in mobile search.

Facebook also uses its own Graph Search internally and for anything that Graph Search can’t cover, it makes use of Microsoft’s Bing Search engine, which has been making some impressive strides.

The mobile search results will reflect only in Android Smartphones, stated on a report on The Verge.

Apple Introduced TV App Store, Tops 1000 Apps

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Apple launched TV App Store, following the release of its revamped streaming media player that went on sale last week.

The TV App Store had only 100s of titles while it launched, but that grew to be more than 1,000 during the weekend, according to the independent 3rd party reports.

With over 1,000 apps, some categories on the Apple TV App Store would only have few titles in total resulting in poor user experience, Apple likely believed.

Now apple’s official rankings confirm those previous findings, pointing to top paid apps which are mainly games, including Galaxy On Fire, Lumino City, and Alto’s Adventure.

“Apple’s miss of Top Charts in a App Store for a new Apple TV usually goes to uncover an Apple TV software, tvOS in a stream state is really unpolished,” says Boserup. “There is no approach for developers to get their apps detected though removing featured on a front page – that is not expected to happen,” he says.

In addition, apps seem to be labeled higher than iOS apps, 9to5Mac reported, observant that it was common for apps to be in a range of $5 to $10, and really few labeled during $0.99 as on an iOS App Store.

According to a data rested daily, 1,025 total apps were live on an Apple TV App Store as of final night.

Google, Udacity Disclosed the Launch of Android Nanodegree

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Google partners with Udacity and Tata Trusts and announced the launch of Android Nanodegree program in India.

This is education documentation for developers to learn new skills.

Google and Tata Trusts will provide 1000 (500 each) scholarships under which Google and Tata Trusts will sponsor the complete Android Nanodegree Program for 500 winning applicants each.

“While India has millions of software developers, we still lag behind in creating world-class apps. With the launch of this program we want to bridge the gap by providing India’s developer community an easy access to learn and build high-quality apps for the world,” said Rajan Anandan, VP & Managing Director, Google South East Asia & India.

Google shall directly pay the program fee to Udacity and the winners do not need to pay any monies to anyone for the program under scholarship.

“We are excited to be launching Udacity in India today and honored to be partnering with Google and Tata Trusts as we bring our Nanodegrees to millions of people in India,” said Sebastian Thrun, founder and CEO, Udacity.

Tata Trusts will have its own selection criteria to find the winners directly.

Winners will be contacted individually by Google and/or its representatives via contact details given during application for the program. Their names will be announced on the Google India Twitter handle and Google+ Page.

By the end of the program, students will get a different portfolio of projects to show employers, and even can publish their own app on the Google Play Store as part of the Capstone project.

The Advantages of Using Solar2D for App Development

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

One of the first things you’ll notice when you visit the Solar2D website is the Solar2D banner. That’s because Solar2D is a special product that helps you to develop mobile applications 10 times speedier.

You can incorporate complex functionalities with only few lines of code. It also allows you to see progressions immediately by utilizing the Simulator.

Let us discuss in brief about the advantages of Solar2D:

1) Single code base

You are not required to hire various designers and use diverse development situations for every gadget in Solar2D. You make a solitary code base that functions admirably well with Android, iOS, Nook and kindle with platform specific conditions.

A solitary cross platform application is the end product. Solar2D app also scales your content automatically across several devices.

2) Importance on design

Solar2D has features to include interactivity and graphic content into your apps and games. While working with Solar2D, instead of feeling like a developer, you will feel like a designer as it has a huge range of designing options.

Read Also: 5 Must-have Mobile App Development Platform Features

3) Community

Solar2D gives you an opportunity for developers like you to join under the Solar2D’s growing community of developers. It has a mutual code repository where developers can share their knowledge and code snippets.

It has 347 studios to help developers all over the world and there are third party tools with which you can redesign your app as well.

4) Quicker Monetization

Solar2D allows you to monetize easily and faster as it provides you integrated support for banner ads, apps s and a number of currencies.

5) Dominant APIs

Gaming APIs can be added easily to your app with only a few lines of human-friendly code. Even kids can create a chart with Solar2D as it is easy to use.

6) FPS

While comparing with other SDKs, Solar2D has a faster frame per second (FPS) making your application seem smooth and consistent with no slacking. It is the best platform for game development as it changes easily for several screen resolutions.

Recommended Read: Why is Apple’s Swift the Future of Mobile App Development?

7) Lua programming

Solar2D is based on this and it is one of the simplest programming languages to learn. It is cross-platform as it is written in ANSI C and has a relatively simple C API.

8) Rights to source code

Everything which you make with Solar2D is your own property written in Lua, despite the fact that the Solar2D game engine is a closed source. It gives you a chance to hold full rights to the Lua code that you used to develop your project.

Thus, with such advantages, Solar2D is one of the best cross-platform game engines available.