Creating iOS Apps: Tips and Tricks I Learned the Hard Way

My First App

Many years ago (in terms of programmer years — so not so many) I had started creating my game-changing app. The Dice app. Simple app for anyone who doesn't have dice 🎲 with him.

I have successfully finished this project...

So this is what I would've appreciated knowing before I started.

Time

Every developer is an optimist by design.

If you ask any developer for estimation he will probably say you a much lower number than the reality will be.

And when we talk about the initial estimate it's like: "Naaanh, 1-2 days max" and you end up with 1-2 years, when all the conditions are taken into consideration. Ask any developer how many side projects does he have in his backlog/todo/in progress and if you are courageous.

My simple dice app took me half a year.

So before you start your next app, ask yourself if you have time for that.

App Store

App Store may look like a place bathed in sunshine, but when you are a developer, it isn't.

First of all, there is a lot of friction to make your app available in the App Store — all the reviews, testing, description, screenshots, checkboxes, documents, ... (don't be mistaken it's actually a good thing, otherwise the overall quality of apps in App Store would be significantly lower).

And when you make it through all of it, you realize there are another 1000 apps similar to yours.

My simple dice app took me another month to get to App Store. That's when I realized (far too late) that there are other dice apps.

So before you start your next app, do research.

The Winner Takes It All

• The Apple App Store has 1.96 million apps available for download.
• The average person uses 9 mobile apps per day and 30 apps per month. 

If the average smartphone user has 80 apps on their phone, this means that more than 62% of those apps don’t get used every month.

If you count all the apps that most of the users have as is Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, ... there is almost no space for the app you are creating.

If numbers aren't your strength — you have a better chance to win in roulette, than make money in the App Store.

My simple dice app was on the last pages of the App Store for few years, before I have decided to discontinue it.

If this still didn't discourage you. I have one last piece of advice for you. Fail Fast.

Fail Fast

I know your social media site is different, your food delivery app is a breakthrough, your chat app has the best encryption... If you still want to develop your iOS app try to do it as fast as possible. Use all the prototyping tools you have these days can be a great booster) and try to fail as soon as possible.

This will save you a lot of time you can dedicate to another project and with quantity, you will gain experience and feeling for what can and what can't be successful.

Footnote

Thanks for reading. Enjoyed this? Follow me on LinkedIn and also check my project ioselements.com with ultimate iOS template.