Apple Is Making The Jump To iOS 7 An Easy Choice For Developers - Forbes

Coverage for iOS

The speed at which Apple users update their iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads, to the latest version of iOS continues to astound me. While all the empirical signs and Apple press releases are out there, what does it mean for the indie developer?

Earlier this week I caught up with Chris Dunphy, one half of developers Two Steps Beyond. Their application ‘Coverage‘ answers a simple question, ‘will I have a mobile signal in a location, and will it be 2G, 3G, or 4G?’ It’s very popular for people on the road.

The latest version had to contend with iOS 7, and given that the change to the new OS happened during a period when they were updating the coverage maps, the decision was made to move over completely to the new user interface paradigm. “We fell in love with the fresh new UI. So much so that we got a bit carried away with this release – and refreshed the user interface and icon to look awesome under iOS 7.”

In the last week, Dunphy has been tracking the OS versions in use, and 85.2% of Coverage users are already on a variant of iOS 7. That makes supporting the latest version of the OS an easy choice, but it’s also a huge technical challenge that Apple has solved, as Dunphy knows from personal experience.

“Keeping the installed base of a platform updated to provide a consistent SDK for developers is an incredibly difficult challenge. I sweated over how to do this at PalmSource!” (Dunphy was the Director of Competitive Analysis at PalmSource in a previous life).

“Apple is making it look easy. Being able to focus primarily on the current version of an operating system makes it so much easier for developers to embrace new features.”

It also gives developers the confidence to move up to the latest OS version for their apps. Countless apps have been updated in the last week or two so they can support iOS 7. Compare that to the life cycle of an Android app and all the variants a developer must consider. To reach the same number of devices with a singe code base on Android is not an easy task.

“Every time we look at doing a port to Android, the fragmentation of the platform and the lack of updates being provided to existing devices is one of the chief reasons we decide that it is not worth it.”

Ensuring developers update their applications to a new OS is a vital process for every mobile OS. With the change to iOS 7, the long beta test period of the OS, and the sheer speed of the switchover by the users are all key parts of a simple discussion with developers. We’ll keep it all up to date, if you join us in the party for the new version.

Taking the example of Coverage, it’s easy to see why Dunphy believes that Apple “set the gold standard” for developers.

via apple - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNF_PZRm4iVl_MZ_9MvmzEQt7XqbFw&url=http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2013/10/02/apple-is-making-the-jump-to-ios-7-an-easy-choice-for-developers/