10 Essential Skills and Responsibilities of an iPhone Application Developer!

Are you having second thoughts on beginning a career in iOS development? Or are you planning to change your career to become a great iOS App developer? Well, then you need to know all about “The Skills Gap.” That is, if you still don’t know about it. Basically, this topic is an inescapable one in the modern hiring landscape. Moreover, it is also the topic that makes the first page of the top blogs from Forbes to Fortune and beyond.

Growing Demand for A Dedicated Team of iOS App Developers

Many people are confused if there are jobs for iOS App developers or not. Well, the honest confession to this is that there are many jobs. And the numbers that you see online regarding the number of iPhone app developers needed is real. Just recently, mobile app development was ranked as one of the “top hot jobs.” This ranking was conducted and shared by The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hence, you know that it is a legitimate result.

Moreover, they have also estimated a 20% growth in open jobs for ios app developers all over the world. Another article that was posted by Inc. It said that there were about 83,649 more jobs posted to hire an iPhone app developer than the number of people hired. This means that you would have an incredible opportunity for you to take up the career as an iOS developer.

iPad and iPhones are the most critical pieces of technological hardware that has been created within the past 20 years. Moreover, these two rely entirely on the iOS as their operating system. And this is why the need for iOS developers are high and in demand. In short, if anyone wants to reach all the users of Apple, then they need an iOS developer in their team.

There are many companies that are hiring full-time developers. On the other hand, some prefer to hire hire dedicated development team. So, you can be an iPhone application developer anywhere. Since those who can’t or don’t hire local iOS developers, hire offshore iPhone developers instead.

Skills & Responsibilities of an iOS Developer

But what does a person need to have to be hired as an iOS developer? The below list would help you know all the skills and responsibilities that a company looks for in an iOS developer:

#1 Swift

The very first thing that you need to be well-versed with is the Swift language. Swift is the programming language that was created by Apple for developing the apps used in the Apple devices. This language is the one for any future iOS development. Hence, you need to know it very well. Even though this is not a small language, you need to learn the basics to get a junior iOS developer position. And to be sure, here are the things that you need to learn under the basics:

• Objective-C Interoperability
• Error handling
• Classes, inheritance & initialization
• Control Flow (If and Switch Statements)
• Optionals
• Basic syntax

If you are a person who already has some programming experience, it would be easier to understand Swift while the others might need to take classes to ensure that they understand the logic behind the programming languages.

#2 Git and GitHub

Every app developer needs to have the skill of version control, which is highly essential. This is mostly true when you are working on long-term projects or even the projects that last a year. To be clear, GitHub is a version control web-based hosting service that uses Git. This platform offers all the shared version control along with the source code management functionality of Git. It also has its own features added. Moreover, it is an important part of every app developer’s daily work. Hence, it is essential for you.

#3 Grand Central Dispatch

Grand Central Dispatch is also known as GCD. This is the thing that enables you to put the “concurrency” into your developed apps. In short, this allows many tasks to easy run simultaneously without any trouble. All the dedicated iPhone app developers need to know this. Why? Well, every app does many things at once; such as collecting data, displaying information, reading user inputs, etc.

And running all this at once would be impossible without the GCD. If you try to run all at once, it will strain the phone that the user is using. In short, the application would either crash or run extremely slowly. Hence, it is vital to know all about concurrent programming as you would not want your application to crash always.

#4 Core Data

Another thing that every company looks at before they hire an iPhone app developer is the experience in core data. Core Data is the endurance framework for the Apple devices. Take for instance that each time you used an application, all your data gets lost. Remember Super Mario Brothers, where you had to finish the game in one run as you could not save the process.

Well, the current games would be the same as these early video games. This makes Core Data a very vital framework to store data on any Apple device. If you do not know anything about it, you need to take a course on it. The starting week of your course might seem like torture. But when you get to the next week, you wouldn’t believe how you lived without it.

#5 Networking

For you to understand what networking has to do with an application, you would first have to imagine an app on a phone that is not connected with the internet. Well, other than the contacts application and some utilities one, no app can work without the web. Almost every application you know about or don’t know about talks to the web.

Due to this, it is highly important for you to know all about the network. That is, you need to know how to send and get data from a network. With this knowledge, you would be able to be a part of a team of dedicated iPhone app developers. Moreover, the interaction with the web is done through JSON. This stands for JavaScript Object Notation.

Anyone who is new to JSON is bound to find it complicated. But as soon as you learn all about it, you would understand it. It is a standard format that is very straightforward. In short, you would need to learn all about this if you want to be an iOS app developer.

#6 Design Guidelines

The most successful iOS apps are always appreciated for being supremely intuitive. And if you are wondering how; then it’s all because they strictly follow the design guidelines. In short, there is a way for how the data is stored and displayed to the user. For this, you would have to know all the design patterns.

One such pattern that can help you is the Model-View-Controller (MVC). This defines how any data is stored, how it is updated after the user responds, and how the information is displayed to the user. Another one that you can learn about is the Delegate Pattern. This pattern lets you know all about how data is transferred between the objects in Cocoa. Cocoa means one sender to one receiver.

Another design pattern is the notification one. Notification is another way to pass data from one sender to multiple receivers. There are many other patterns that you can learn about. But knowing at least one is important.

#7 Spatial Reasoning

To be a successful app developer, you need to have the ability to think in 3D. Moreover, you should be able to visualize the spatial relations between objects. To be clear, when you design any interfaces for any app, you have to be aware of how the users would interact with the application. Hence, you need to know the following:

• Use the device you are creating the app for so you can reason properly, and
• Understand all the kinds of inputs/controls available for the various platforms.

Even though some people can naturally be great at this, the rest need to learn this as a skill. It is best mastered by working on real projects and practicing as much as possible.

Additional Skills Needed

Other than the skills mentioned above, some additional skills are needed by the iOS app developers. With the latest trends like AI and machine learning, it is important to know about these. The reason is simple; they are also used in developing mobile applications. The next points would explain the trends you need to be aware of as an iPhone app developer.

#8 Core Machine Learning

The very first top trend that is being used a lot currently is the core machine language or Core ML. Using the machine learning technology, the Core ML was launched by Apple. This framework has proved to be very useful for all the tasks that are related to QuickType, Siri, or Camera. Since it is used in applications of an Apple device, it is important that you know this technology well.

As a matter of fact, the Core ML offers perfect communication that is applicable for all the iOS devices. This technology is integrated through a code in the application. Basically, the code you add would enrich the features and enhance the security of the application. This is possible due to its robust library.

Moreover, this code is also useful for the AI-based games. In short, with this, you would be able to build highly interactive apps. And companies will hire you without a second thought if you have this skill set.

#9 Artificial Intelligence (AI)

You already know about Siri, right? It is a personal assistant in any Apple device and has gained a lot of popularity worldwide. But the reason it is one of the best PA is due to the integrated AI and contextual learning technology in it. It understands what anyone is searching for or speaking easily. It is due to this that many other apps have begun to have AI integrated into them. This is one reason why knowing AI is a bonus for any iOS app developer.

#10 Augmented Reality (AR) and ArKit

If you decide to make AI and Core ML a part of your skill set, Augmented Reality should also be added to it. It is highly important for any mobile app development. And many companies look for this skill when hiring iOS app developers. The reason for this is simple. The latest iOS 11.3 came out focusing on ARKit. This means that others iOS apps would also start using it soon. Hence, this is another important skill that you need to know about to be a professional iOS developer.

Not sure what the ARKit is about? Well, it is used in developing virtual reality-based and 3D mobile applications. These type of applications are on the hype right now. This is also why companies are looking for dedicated iPhone app developers who know all about it. So, before you go for your next interview, ensure that you know all about the ARKit as well.

Other job responsibilities of an iOS app developer?

Now that you know all about the skill set needed, there are some additional responsibilities that the expected of the offshore iPhone developers. The very first one is to avoid any mistakes. This is since the iPhone app developers contribute towards a brand — Apple. Hence, if a mistake is made, it produces a negative opinion regarding the company — Apple.

Furthermore, the developers are expected to work in a team that is diverse. They need to connect well with the team so that the end product created is perfect. But this is not all. There are many other responsibilities that you need to take care of being an iOS app developer. Below shared are all the responsibilities expected from an iOS developer:

• Create sophisticated multi-threaded apps.
• Assist in maintaining code quality, organization, and automation.
• Continuously explore, judge, and execute new technologies for maximizing development efficiency.
• Recognize and rectify bottlenecks and fix bugs.
• Test the code for sturdiness, which includes testing usability, edge cases, and general reliability of the app developed.
• Build and design advanced native iOS apps on the iOS platform.

Bottom Point

All-in-all, all the offshore iPhone developers has to be well-versed with the above-mentioned skills. Moreover, every developer should also know their responsibilities well. In case you are not a professional iPhone app developer and need help with an iOS app, you can hire freelancers. It is not always important to become one if you want something. Many freelancers are professionals in this field.

Talking about freelancers, Your Team in India has a massive team of dedicated iPhone app developers who can achieve your goal for you. You can have your application prepared under affordable prices within a short time-frame!