Smartphones have become very popular among the people all over the world. Many software developers around the world earn a good amount of money by developing software and applications for these mobile devices. There are quite a few platforms that can be used for smartphone app development. Each platform has its own language and application development tools with which we can create applications. The two most important platforms are: IOS and Android. Let’s take a brief look at each of them.
iOS
The official language of Apple mobile devices is iOS, which is based on Objective-C. With this language we can create applications for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. There are different versions of IOS, but they are all programmed with Objective-C and Xcode, which is the Development Environment (DE) powered by Apple. With it we can create desktop applications for Mac and iOS. Xcode plays an important role in iPhone app development and most of the alternatives to build iPhone apps (Appcelerator, Phonegap and Corona) always rely on this tool to create the final build.
The only problem is that Xcode is only available with Mac. So to create iOS apps, you need a computer running Mac OS. Important Requirement: In order to deploy apps to the App Store and test developed apps on your own iPhone/iPad, you need to purchase a developer license which costs around $100 per year.
android
Developing apps with the help of Android is comparatively easier. First we have the Java language for developing applications and a platform called the SDK that runs on all popular operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Mac. If you want a development environment, you can use a plugin called Eclipse ADT that includes a simulator, which works on all platforms and is free and open source. Also, to develop mobile applications based on Android, people do not need to buy any license and can do it for free.
Information for developers
If you’re a software developer looking to create your first smartphone app, you’ll need to choose the platform that’s best for you. For example, if you have a better understanding of Objective-C and have access to a Mac computer, you might want to go with iOS. However, if you feel that you have a better understanding of JAVA as a language, you can go for Android smartphone app development.
