3 Predictions For The Future Of iOS Development
It is not possible to predict the future – so let’s do it!
Swift Is The Future of iOS Development
It is very interesting to observe the development of Swift. Apple’s new programming language has just been introduced a year ago, but it is already heavily used and accepted by the developers. Of course there are also people that don’t like Swift and prefer Objective-C, and that’s perfectly fine as well. But on the other hand it is very clear that Swift is the future of iOS development.
But one question remains: What will happen to Objective-C? At the moment Apple is supporting both languages, but Apple is not that kind of company that will support two major programming languages forever. So in my opinion it is very likely that Objective-C will be deprecated at some point in the future.
There Will Be a Complete New Layout System
Creating the user interface for iOS apps used to be very easy in the past. Before the iPhone 5 there were just one phone size and one tablet size. With the introduction of the iPhone 5 there was a little bit more work to do, but the general philosophy did not change. But now you have also the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Pro sizes so that it is not possible to layout absolutely anymore. Apple’s answers to this problem are size classes and auto layout.
Generally speaking, these two tools have a lot of power so that it is possible to implement all layout requirements. But on the other side they are very difficult to learn. I believe this is the main reason for introducing StackViews which are very similar to the LinearLayout in Android development.
So I think it is very likely that Apple will introduce a complete new layout system in the future that is both powerful and easy to learn.
The Platform Will Grow Dramatically
The iPad Pro will change iOS development dramatically. Not because the development of apps will change as such. But the iPad Pro will make it possible to develop other kinds of apps.
Although there are already very powerful apps on the iPad, it was not possible to develop apps that have the power to replace desktop applications like Adobe Photoshop because the screen size is too small. But the iPad Pro has a screen that is big enough for that kind of apps. Also the introduction of the Apple Pencil is a very important step because the user input with your finger tips is to limited for some use cases.
The new Apple TV is a very important new device for the platform as well. The Apple TV used to be just a hobby for Apple, but with the introduction of the new Apple TV and the SDK this changed dramatically.
It is very obvious how powerful a Apple TV SDK is. First of all, it is very similar to the iOS SDK. The main difference is that it lacks a webview. But besides from that it is very easy to adopt your existing iOS applications to the Apple TV. Also the creation of new apps will be very straightforward.
So in my opinion the platform will grow dramatically in the future. Professionals like designers and photographers will prefer the iPad Pro over the laptop and consumers will love the Apple TV. That also means that there will be an even higher demand for iOS developers in the future.
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