We all, even us iOS app developers, know the tale of the dodo, don’t we? The three-foot-tall dodo is was a bird that lived on the beautiful island of Mauritius about 300 years ago. Sadly, this dinosaur-ish looking creature had evolved to survive on a land that did not have dogs, pigs, rats, or personkind. For millennia and millennia, all was fine for the flightless bird until the dark day that a motley band of Portuguese stumbled upon the spec of land, just a short shot to the right of Madagascar, around 1584. Less than 100 years later, there were no more dodo birds anywhere. Not only did the dodo fail to figure out that they needed to fight back, they never even learned to be frightened of man nor the creatures with which they traveled.
Now, of course, the dodo’s sad tale is not a one off, nor is it a tale that iOS app developers can afford to ignore. The passenger pigeon, the wooly mammoth, and many other species were all doing just fine until suddenly they weren’t. Suddenly their situation changed so quickly that they were not able to evolve quick enough to keep on keeping on and “poof” they were gone. Forever.
But, it is not just living, breathing beings that need to evolve in order to survive. Industries and businesses do as well. We all remember how popular MySpace, Kodak, Nokia, and Tower of Records were, don’t we? These once-upon-a-time powerhouses were thriving successes until they failed to evolve, their products weren’t productive enough, and their services failed to please.. and then that was that. If us iOS app developers fail to evolve we will at some point fail to get gigs and fail our mothership platform until all is lost.
Yep, I am here to remind us all that we, as iOS App developers, need to continuously evolve or we too will fall onto the ash heap of history.
These are the three ways iOS app developers must evolve starting today:
iOS App Developers Must Up the Focus on App Security
We simply must improve app security; failure to do so will squeeze the fun, practicality, and functionality folks get out of their iPhones and other iOS devices. Case in point is the flood of robocalls we have all been getting in the last year or so. While this type of scam may not be the most serious threat, it sure is the one that is most in your face.
Just last year, the New York Times said that the number of robocalls increased by 900 million in a single month. These are frightening numbers, so frightening, in fact, that lawmakers around the globe have pledged to do something about it. But, shouldn’t this be a challenge that iOS app developers ought to tackle on our own? After all, none of us should welcome additional regulation, should we?
And, robocalls are indeed just the tip of the iOS threat-berg. iOS app developers must not forget to fight back against wi-fi pirates, crypto-jacking, the old-timey social engineering sneak in, data leakage, and more, so much more.
iOS App Developers Must Integrate Their Apps with Apple Pay
When it comes to designing premium iOS apps or iOS apps that rely on in-app purchases, iOS app developers MUST integrate their apps with Apple Pay. Electronic wallets are quickly becoming the way people pay. This time last year, there were around 252 million Apple Pay users (about one out of every three iPhone users). At that point, CEO Tim Cook predicted that Apple Pay transactions would increase by 200% in a year.
What is especially interesting and intriguing about these figures is that they are not primarily in America. Cook said that 85% of all Apple Pay transactions take place abroad. What that means to us iOS app developers is that there is a whole lot of room for growth in the US. Tons of interest in additional apps with Apple Pay functionality overseas.
iOS App Developers Must Get Their Wares into the Apple App Store
Ahhh… the dreaded Apple App Store quandary: on the one hand, the rules and standards apps must meet in order to simply get onto a shelf in the Apple app store. Do indeed ensure that customers only get apps with a certain level of quality. While, on the other hand, these hurdles do make it tougher for iOS app developers to sell their products.
The main source for the trickiness of getting approved is that Apple continuously changes its rules and standards. And, just violating a single rule can keep you from getting in.
iOS App Developers Can Indeed Change and Evolve
Moving forward, iOS app developers have to make sure they are designing apps that are secure, that can make purchases, and be approved by Apple’s fickle eye. If we fail to do so, our days will be numbered.