While the salaries for iOS developers can be attractive, money is often not the only motivation. Software development requires certain skills and personality traits. Sure, some teachers have no idea what they are talking about. Nobody wants to hear fitness advice from their fat uncle.
So, you should apply a healthy dose of skepticism. Still, if that proverb were true, all teachers would be terrible, and we would never learn anything.
I use a more straightforward metric: does that person have a proven record of getting something I want? I have been teaching iOS development since , and I created premium courses with hundreds of students. That was a pleasant surprise for me as well. Before I started teaching, I worked as a freelancer for several years for small , medium , and big clients. Before that, I worked as an iOS developer for an agency making apps for top companies and for a Dutch social network like Facebook that does not exist anymore.
One of the main reasons why people want to become iOS developers is because of salaries. On its website, Apple brags about creating two million jobs in the U. Salaries for software developers are, in general, quite high. That is true also for iOS developers.
How much you can earn depends on many factors, though. The main ones are your location and your experience. Luckily, there are a few websites where you can get a ballpark figure. Be sure to check for your specific location.
Tech hubs like Silicon Valley drive salaries up, so the high-end listed above is probably only possible at big companies like Apple, Google, or Facebook. Payscale, for example, shows lower figures. I knew a guy that wanted that kind of salary here in The Netherlands, where I live. Although I am sure you could negotiate a higher salary. More on that later. In the past years, I spent a lot of time interacting with my email list subscribers to understand what motivates them and what problems they have get on my list here.
Some admit they do it for the money, and there is nothing wrong with that. In general, developers take pride in their craft. They do not treat their profession just as a way of making money. Passion is overrated. You definitely need to be interested in software development if you want to become an iOS developer. But passion is fleeting. You need something else to keep you going when you will inevitably lose your initial motivation.
And passion does not always come at the beginning anyway. Often, it only happens after you master a skill. Proven psychological tools like Dr. As a developer, you will spend most of your time programming.
That means typing text in a text editor. Not any type of text, mind you. You write programs in the Swift programming language , which is a formal language you use to write instructions for a computer. Here is what a piece of Swift code looks like:. That is the job of a user interface designer, not a developer. UI design is a field in and of itself, which also takes time to study. But if all you want to do is design apps like the ones you find on Dribbble , you are trying to become a designer, not a developer.
As a developer, you will work with designers that take care of the visual appearance of an app. You will, instead, work on its functionality. While you will be using some visual tools to build apps, you will spend most of your time typing code. Typing code does not mean being a writer of literature or poetry, despite what some slogan might say. These traits are all related to intelligence.
On top of that, you might also want to consider your personality. Those tests have no scientific validity and can give you different results if taken more than once, so they are not reliable. You can find free personality tests online, but I recommend this one. Many of the software tools you will use will be free, but getting a new Mac computer and an iPhone or an iPad can be expensive.
Luckily, there are cheaper alternatives. Think what you want of it, but, in my opinion, starting with something illegal is not the best way of becoming an iOS developer or anything else.
Taking shortcuts will have harmful psychological consequences in the long term. You can find some cheap, second-hand machine on eBay, like a Mac mini , for a fair price. Mac minis with the Apple M1 processor are the best and beat even professional computers, but they are still expensive. Make sure that the Mac you buy can run the latest version of macOS, and possibly the next one if Apple has already announced it. At the moment, I recommend a computer that runs at least macOS Catalina so that you can learn new technologies like SwiftUI more on this later.
Since Catalina runs on Mac minis from onward, it should not be hard to find one. Once you have a Mac, you will need to install Xcode on it. You also get automatic updates for Xcode from the App Store as you do other apps on your Mac.
If you own one already, it can be useful. Xcode comes with an iOS simulator that allows you to run all the apps you make on your computer.
I developed my first iOS app using only the simulator. I also worked for many clients where I rarely, if ever, ran apps on real devices. The iOS simulator covers most of your learning needs. You need a real device only to do the final testing before submitting an app to the App Store. And actually, Apple keeps adding featured to the simulator, so you can test your apps in ways that are not easy with a real device.
For example, you can quickly change settings for dark mode or accessibility. Or, if you create apps that use the GPS location, you can create a file with a track to simulate movement, which is better than running around your neighborhood.
Sometimes, though, you might need to test features that are not available in the simulator. For functions like multitouch, the gyroscope, the camera, or the Apple pencil, you need a device. These are advanced features, so you should not be learning them at the beginning anyway. In any case, a second-hand device can still be an affordable choice. Make sure that the device you buy can run the latest version of iOS so that you can use the latest features. At the time of writing, that is iOS 14 , which includes features, like widgets, not available on previous versions.
I still have one as my primary device, and it works great. If you want an iPad, get a device that runs iPadOS 13 instead. The first necessary step for any software developer is to learn programming. This is a crucial part of being an iOS developer, so I recommend focusing on it before you try to learn anything else. Apple moves at a fast pace, releasing new stuff every year.
The history of computers indeed went through massive forward steps. In a few decades, we went from huge mainframes as large as a room to modern, Internet-connected mobile devices we can carry in our pockets.
But while technology moves fast, the foundations of software development always stay the same. Once you are familiar with them, you can jump to any new technology you like.
Significant shifts like Swift and SwiftUI do happen, but only once every five years or so. Yes, you will have to keep your knowledge up-to-date. But you usually get plenty of time. One of the worst things I see again and again online is people teaching Swift programming and iOS development at the same time.
Apple is guilty of that too. Both Swift programming and the iOS platform are two massive beasts. I met many people that got confused following that approach. If you learn bits of this and that, it will take you, at best, five months in total. It will actually take you far more because many of these topics assume you know previous ones. After one month, you can cross the first one off your list.
First goal accomplished. Instant gratification. But you can reap the benefits already after one month. Now, you can learn the next topic with solid foundations, making it faster.
This concept is called constraint theory , which was introduced in the book The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. You should use it for everything you do in your life, not just learning iOS development. As I mentioned above, as an iOS developer, you will spend most of your time writing code.
So, the first thing you have to learn is programming. Computer programs are written using formal language in which you give instructions to a computer. There are a plethora of programming languages out there, but programming is mostly the same on any platform. That makes your programming skills transferrable from one language to another, so it does not matter which language you learn first. The sole purpose of her writings is to provide information which readers find easy. Planning for new startup?
We offer more than just tech solution; from your Bplans to market research reports. Want to make it really big? Need to validate your idea? Get a well-researched industry report, customized just for you. Further, we have jotted nine skills that you must have to become an iOS developer: 1. The Swift 3. Spatial Reasoning Spatial reasoning is one of the essential characteristics to develop an app.
Design Guidelines The reason why Apple users are crazy about their devices is their uniqueness that lures them to purchase Apple products. Apple Human Interface Guidelines You must be aware of Apple Guidelines, as it will be the most important skill that help you best the best iOS app developer. Grand Central Dispatch Usually, an app does many tasks concurrently such as receiving data from the internet, following human inputs, presenting data and many more. Conclusion So if you wish to be active in iOS app development, the concepts as mentioned above will do wonders for you.
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Even in smart phones, Apple leads others, as usual. Hence, being a master at iOS app development can secure a bright future for you as they are high in demand and every tech companies welcome brilliant and highly skilled iOS developers with open hands.
Here, in this post, we have discussed 9 skills that an iOS developer must have. The Swift 3. Just like a cricketer should know how to catch, you need to know Swift 3. It is a programming language that is owned by Apple to develop iOS mobile applications. It is another thing that you should be the master at. Xcode IDE is the real reason that makes the app excellent and offers magnificent user experience. It is said that it takes from concept to code to customers. It also helps a developer to enable different Apple service such as Passbook and Game Changer too.
Spatial Reasoning. Spatial reasoning is one of the key aspects of developing an app. You need to think out-of-the-box to make the end user feel good and satisfied while using the app. By thinking logically as a user, you will be able to design an interface and add functionalities that are more accessible, comprehensive and useful for the user. You need to envision it to make more meaningful and useful apps.
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