Android OS Vs. Apple iOS – Which is better for developers?

With the number of smartphone users increasing each day, there is an equal increase in the number of app developers for the same. Though developers have a whole lot of mobile platforms to choose from, they would most probably select one of the two most sought-after mobile OS’ today, Apple's iOS and Google’s Android. So, which of these is better for developers and why? Here is a detailed comparison between the Apple iOS and the Android OS for developers.

Programming Language Used

The Android OS uses mainly Java, which is the common programming language used by developers. Hence, developing Android gets that much easier for most developers.

The iPhone OS uses Apple’s Objective-C language, which can mostly be unravelled by app developers who are already familiar with C and C++. This being more exclusive, may become a stumbling block for developers who are not too proficient in other programming languages.

Developing Multi-Platform Apps

Developing multi-platform apps seems to be the “in” thing today. Of course, you cannot run Java-based apps on the iPhone or Objective-C-based apps on Android devices.
There are tools for multi-platform app development today. But they may not be effective when it comes to actually displaying the original information on another mobile OS. Mobile game developers especially find cross-platforming a huge challenge.

Hence, the only viable, long-term solution here would be to rewrite your app in the device’s own native language.

App Development Platform

Android offers developers an open development platforms and allows them the liberty to use third-party tools for app development. This helps them play around with many features of their app, adding more functionality to them. This is vital to the success of this platform, which comes with an impressive range of mobile devices.

Apple, on the other hand, is pretty restrictive with their developer guidelines. The developer here is given a fixed set of tools to develop apps and cannot use anything outside of those. This would eventually curb his creative skills to a large extent.

Multitasking Abilities

The Android OS is very versatile and can help developers create dynamic apps for multiple purposes. But this very multitasking ability of the Android OS very often creates problems for the amateur Android developer, since it takes a lot of time to learn, understand and master. This, combined with Android’s highly fragmented platform, poses a real challenge to the Android developer.

In contrast, Apple presents a more stable, exclusive platform for app developers, clearly specifying tools, defining both their potential and boundaries. This makes it much easier for the iOS developer to proceed with the task ahead of him.

Mobile App Testing

Android offers an excellent testing environment for its developers. All the testing tools available are neatly indexed and the IDE offers a good model of the source code. This lets developers test their app thoroughly and debug wherever required, before presenting it to the Android Market.

Apple’s Xcode lags far behind Android’s standards here and has miles to go before it can even hope to catch up with the latter.

App Approval

The Apple App Store takes 3-4 weeks for app approval. They are also finicky and place many restrictions on the app developer. Of course, this factor has not deterred the several hundreds of developers approaching the App Store every month. Though Apple also offers an open API using which developers can host the app on their site, this is not very effective, as the app cannot get even a fraction of that exposure outside the App Store.

The Android Market, on the other hand, presents no such stiff resistance to the developer. This makes it very convenient for the Android developer.

Payment Procedure

iOS developers can earn 70% of the revenue generated from the sales of their app in the Apple App Store. But they have to pay an annual fee of $99 to gain access to the iPhone SDK.
Android developers, on the other hand, only need to pay a one-time registration fee of $25 and can earn 70% of revenue of the sales of their app in the Android Market. They can also feature the same app in other app marketplaces too, if they so wish.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both the Andriod OS and the Apple iOS have their own pluses and minuses. Both are equally strong contenders and are bound to rule the app marketplace with their own strengths and positives.

8 tips to get your app approved by the Apple App Store

Being an Apple developer is never a joke. Developers always have that lurking fear of their app being rejected by the Apple App Store. The Apple App Store is one of the best app marketplaces in the mobile industry, as also one of the most difficult to enter and get recognized for a developer. Tips on getting your app approved by the Apple App Store,

 

 1. Check for Errors

Most of the apps entering the Apple App Store are immediately rejected because they are found to have some technical glitch or the other. It could even boil down to sheer carelessness on the part of the developer, entry of a faulty version number and so on.
The latest version of the Xcode comes with a Fix-It feature, which can do away with most of the little problems that could otherwise hold up the approval process. See to it that your app is error-free both technically and otherwise. Test your app thoroughly before submitting the same to the App Store.

2. Give All the Necessary Details

Make sure you fill out all the necessary details, without leaving out even one of them. The most important things here are as follows:

• Your name, contact, telephone/mobile number and email id
• The APIs used, with a description about them
• Whether images or icons are used and if they are used in other apps
• Links to external Websites where necessary, with a description of the same, if need be.

3. Keep it Simple

Presenting a simple version of your app at first will be the sensible thing to do. Get down to the basics and do away with the unnecessary frills for initial submission. Remember that the initial app approval process is what takes the most time. Once approved, future updates are far easier to get done. So keep the advanced features for later releases of your app.
It is, however, not sensible to make it too simple. Do not present a “test” or “beta” version of your app, as it will most likely be rejected at first glance.

 

4. Play by the Rules

Apple has a set of well-defined, very stringent rules. Though some of them may sound downright crazy to you, be careful to follow the rules to the ‘T’. Do not, for example, misspell technical jargon. Also, never employ unpublished APIs.

Nothing that sounds in any way, “violent”, will be acceptable by Apple. So name your app in such a way that it sounds appealing, without appearing to be “damaging” or “offensive”.

5. Read Previous Case-Histories

Learn about other Apple developers’ experiences, ask around and find out just what it takes to get your app approved in the Apple App Store.

If possible, read previous “case-histories” of App Store rejections to find out why those apps did not get approved. This will give you a better understanding of the App Store, thereby letting you create a better app.

 

6. Get Creative

The Apple App Store has at present, over 300,000 apps. This obviously makes it really hard for developers to make their app stand head and shoulders above the rest. Get creative with your app, select a niche which is not very saturated and see if you can present your app in some different way.

Adopt a novel angle to your app, make it usable and engaging to the user. If you cannot make your app appear extraordinary, chances are that it will not pass the App Store approval process.

7. Be Polite

Know that the App Store deals with a large number of app submissions on an everyday basis. The least you can do is to be polite with them, be specific about your goals and clearly state the purpose of your app.

Politeness scores about all else and gives off an air of class and professionalism. Take the time to draft your covering letter and see to it that you include as much information as you can.

 

8. Learn Patience

Typically, the App Store approval process takes anything between 1-4 weeks. But sometimes, it may take much longer than that. Be patient and await the verdict.

In case you should get rejected, iTunes will also let you know the reasons for the same. This will let you know exactly what went wrong and how you can fix it in your next try.  

Useful tips on marketing your iPhone App

Ways to Promote Your Apple iPhone App and Make the Maximum Profit

Congratulations on successfully creating your Apple iPhone app and even more importantly, on getting it approved by the Apple App Store. The next step you need to think of is to promote your iPhone app and make the maximum profit from the sales of this app. While general app marketing techniques are more or less the same across the entire range of mobile devices and platforms available today, the App Store deserves special treatment, as it is a huge store that includes mobile apps in every imaginable, probable category. Marketing your iPhone app in such a way as to make it stand out among them all is quite a Herculean task.

Listed below are some ways you can use to successfully market your iPhone app in the Apple App Store:

Promote App in the iTunes App Store

Promoting your app in the iTunes app store is one step you should never neglect, as it may well prove to be the single most influential factor in bestowing you success in this app marketplace.

It is a fact that the most avid iPhone users are constantly on the lookout for newer apps for their iPhone and iPad. These users would most probably visit the iTunes App Store to get useful information on the latest apps. This is the reason why focusing on this app store is so important to you.

Focus on Making Your App Appealing

Since the iTunes App Store is a veritable gateway for you to make good profits with your iPhone app, you should focus on making the app most appealing to visitors. For this, the overall appearance of the app must be effective enough to generate a good conversion rate among visitors, that is, to rope in as many customers as possible. The following is what you should do in order to enhance app appearance and make it more engaging for your visitors:

1.      As we have seen before, properly naming your app is one of the most important steps in achieve success with app marketing. Your app name should be such that it describes the function of your app, cleverly including the keyword within itself. A good app name is the first and foremost thing to get your app featured prominently in the latest app listings.

2.      The app description should be clear and concise, stating the exact purpose for which your iPhone app has been created. This description should be keyword-rich as well. You should also feature clear photos and video previews of your app, so that potential users get a good idea about the same.

3.      Next, get as many customer reviews on your app. The more the positive reviews, the more are the chances of your app being featured repeatedly in the app store listings. The best way to get started with this is to share your app among family and friends, asking them to post their reviews online.

Submit App to iPhone Review Sites

Many iPhone developers tend to overlook this simple but very effective technique to further promote their app and give it most visibility in the marketplace. App review sites are nice locations to feature your app for free, as also get your much-needed user reviews for your app.

Though this technique does not guarantee instant app popularity, it does give you one more way to get your app that precious little piece of attention from visitors to such sites. Besides, this is a place which offers you an additional opportunity for link-building to your mobile app Website, in case you have already created one.

Social Network and Website Banner Ads

Most app developers typically concentrate on promoting their apps via the various social networks today. While this may be able to bring in a few users for your app, it cannot be the primary vehicle for app promotion. For instance, advertising on social Websites such as Facebook can prove to be very expensive for you. Not only that; not too many users are particularly interested in clicking on the ads placed on such Websites. Hence, advertising on these sites may not be worth the time, effort and money taken for the same.

The same is the case for banner advertising. Unless you are already a well-established app developer, who has won accolades with many apps in the past, the chances are that not many visitors on social networks will want to click on your ad. Nevertheless, it may help generate a certain minimum amount of sales for you.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, though marketing via social networks and mobvertising certainly enable you to make money to some degree, the most important step towards successfully marketing your iPhone app would be to feature it in the iTunes App Store and also try and gather the maximum possible amount of positive user reviews for the same.

Wish you all the best with your marketing venture!

Tips for newbie iPhone Developers

Useful Pointers for Amateur Developers on iPhone App Development

Creating an app for the iPhone can be an extremely complex task to accomplish. This process can get especially overwhelming for newbie iPhone developers, who are struggling to get a grip with developing apps for the iPhone. iPhone app development requires you to tackle several aspects simultaneously, including the usability factor, testing, debugging and so on.

Here are some useful tips for the newbie iPhone developer:

Native Apps or Web Apps?

A native app is that which is installed directly on the iPhone. Native apps work with the device’s own built-in features, thereby assuring you of a much smoother app development experience. In case you are looking at developing a responsive, high-performance app or an app that involves graphics, you would do well to master Objective-C and create a native app.

On the other hand, if you want to create something simple, such as a mobile-friendly version of your Website, you can think of creating a Web app. Needless to say, it also pays to develop a native app and then create a Web app around it.

You will do well to imitate a native app while actually creating a Web app. This makes it easier for you to develop your Web app, while also creating a familiar environment for the iPhone user, who is already conversant with the device’s ways of working.

The Viewport

While most Web pages would be compatible with the size of the iPhone screen, it would still be better to ensure that your page is displayed most optimally on the iPhone. Defining this function is what tells the browser to scale your page in the best possible way for the iPhone screen. You may also consider allowing the user to pinch or double-tap the screen in order to zoom in or zoom out the page.
The viewport is what makes your Web app completely compatible with the Apple iPhone. Hence, it is absolutely necessary to define this aspect right in the very beginning.

The Address Bar

The address bar on the browser takes up considerable space on the limited real estate of the iPhone screen. In order to gain a little more space on the screen, you could hide the address bar, thus helping you display that much more information on the screen. Of course, hiding the address bar permanently is not very helpful either. Ideally, you should see to it that the address bar remains hidden while the user scrolls through the search list. It can come up again once he or she has stopped scrolling.

Use Vertical Lists

Using lists is a great way to display information, especially when you are giving the user multiple choices of action. Lists enable the user to navigate the menu with ease, while also loading faster and making the screen look a lot tidier and much more engaging.

Also, note that using vertical lists is always better than using horizontal lists. Creating a horizontal list is a far more complex process and would require more loading time, requiring you to redirect too many pages, linking each one to the main page.

Keep it Simple

Remember to keep the first version of app simple and fast. A basic app lets you work with ease, putting in just the effort that it requires and no more. It also loads faster and performs better, thus encouraging users to come back to your app. Once you are more familiar with the entire process, you can go ahead to add newer features in each subsequent release of your app.

Include an App Icon

Including a nice, eye-catching app icon would be a good idea, as it allows users to locate your app on their homescreen. Creating an icon also makes it all look very professional, while also appealing to the user’s eye.

Test on Regular Browsers

While you necessarily need to check your Web app on the iPhone browser, it also helps test the same on regular browsers, as it will help give you an idea about the general look of the app. It goes without saying that different browsers would display your app differently. Yet, this will give you a feel of your app on the Web as well.

Test the App on an iPhone

While you have access to a number of app simulators, it is always desirable to test your app on the actual device that it is meant for. Simulators can sometimes give you very different results than on the actual iPhone. This could render your app testing process ineffective. Use simulators only as a guide to help your initial assessment of the app and not as a replacement for the iPhone.

In Conclusion

Consider all the above-mentioned tips while creating your first app for the iPhone. Also research the many app development tools available to you and learn how you can use them more effectively to develop your iPhone app.

How do I sell my iPhone App via the App Store?

An overview of the process of getting an iPhone App into the App Store

Having seen the success of some developers in selling Apps for the iPhone, and with the iPad now out, there must be many developers thinking "Why not Me?". Notable early successes include Trism in 2008, where developer Steve Demeter created the puzzle game as a side project and made $250,000 (net of Apple's cut) within a couple of months.
Last year saw FireMint's Flight Control hold the #1 spot for several weeks and it sold over 700,000. The link above leads to a 16 page PDF where they published their sales figures. They're hoping to repeat the success now with an upgraded HD version for the iPad.

Billion $ Business

There are well over 100,000 registered iPhone App developers, with over 186,000 Apps in the App Store for the iPhone/iPod and over 3,500 for the iPad when this was written (according to 148 Apps). Apple by their own admission has sold over 85 million devices (50 million iPhones and 35 million iPod Touches) and games are the number one category which makes it a lot harder to achieve success. In April according to 148 Apps, an average of 105 games were released every day!

A year ago, one billion apps had been downloaded and it now stands at 3 billion. A large number of those are free (approx 22% of Apps ) but it's still an immense amount of money paid out by Apple to developers after the 30% cut that Apple takes.

It's not that easy to make a lot of money. Creating the App is one thing but selling it in sufficient numbers is a whole different ball game that demands that you promote it, and provide free copies to reviews. In some cases, people pay reviewers to get their Apps reviewed. If you're really lucky and Apple pick up on it you'll get a lot of free promotion.

Getting Started

If you're new to iPhone development, then you should definitely get this first:

• Apple Development Secrets

In a nutshell if you want to develop for the iPhone:

• You need a Mac Computer of some kind, Mac Mini, iMac, MacBook etc. You cannot develop for the App Store on a Windows or Linux PC.
• Join the Free iPhone Developers Program. This gives access to the SDK and Xcode development system which you download and install. It includes an emulator so you can test most apps except those which need hardware such as the camera or GPS.
• Pay $99 a year for access to the developer program. This lets you install apps on your own iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. It also gives earlier access to betas and past versions of the SDK.

Development Process

So you've been developing away and have got a version that runs in the emulator. Next you've paid your $99 and been accepted in the developer's program. This means you can now try your app out on your iPhone. Here is an overview of how you do that. Apple's developer website provides a lot more detail.

You need an iPhone Development certificate.

For that you have to run the Keychain Access app on your Mac (in developer tools) and generate a Certificate Signing Request then upload it to Apple's iPhone Developer Program Portal and get the certificate. You'll also need to download the intermediate certificate as well and install both in Keychain Access.

Next up is registering your iPhone etc as a Testing device. You can have up to 100 devices which is handy for larger teams, especially when there is iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPod touch and iPad to test on.
Then you register your application. Finally, armed with both application id and device id you can generate a Provisioning Profile on the Apple website. This gets downloaded, installed into Xcode and you get to run your App on your iPhone!

The App Store

Unless your are a large company with over 500 employees or a university teaching iPhone App development there are only two ways to distribute your apps.

1. Submit it to the App Store
2. Distribute it by Ad-Hoc Distribution.

Distributing through the App Store is what most people I'd guess want to do. Ad Hoc means you produce a copy for a specified iPhone etc, and can supply it for up to 100 different devices. Again you need to get a certificate so run Keychain Access and generate another Certificate Signing request, then go to the Apple developer portal website and get a distribution certificate. You'll download and install this in Xcode and use it to generate a Distribution Provisioning Profile.

To submit your App to the App Store you'll also need the following:

• A list of descriptive words so it can be found in the App Store.
• Three icons (29 x 29, 57 x 57 and 512 x 512).
• A Launch image that appears while your App is loading.
• A few (1-4) screenshots of your App's screens.
• Contract information.

Then you do the actual submitting to the iTunesConnect website (part of Apple.com), set prices (or is it free) etc. Then, assuming that you've avoided the many ways of getting Apple to reject your App from the App Store, it should appear in a few days.
Here are some of the reasons for rejection but it's not complete, so please read Apple's best practices document:

• It's considered objectionable e.g. pornography.
• It crashes.
• It has a backdoor or is malicious.
• It uses private APIs.

Apple says that they receive 8,500 Apps per week and 95% of submissions get accepted within 14 days. So good luck with your submission and get coding!

By the way, if you decide to include an Easter Egg (surprise screens, hidden content, jokes etc) in your App be sure to let the review team know how to activate it. They won't tell; their lips are sealed. If on the other hand you don't tell them and it comes out, then so might your App from the App Store!