Today, having a strong mobile presence is crucial for any business looking to engage customers and remain competitive. According to a recent report, mobile apps are expected to generate over $935 billion in revenue by 2023. With over 1.6 million apps in the Apple App Store alone, iOS apps represent a significant share of the mobile app market.
For many companies, investing in custom iOS app development is the logical next step.
Statistics that highlight Why Investing in an iOS App is a Good Idea:
- There are over 2 billion active Apple devices, offering significant opportunities for businesses to engage customers and drive growth.
- Global consumer spending on mobile apps through the Apple App Store reached $21.5 billion, surpassing Google Play's $12.1 billion. This demonstrates a significant lead for the Apple App Store in terms of spending.
- iOS apps have a higher retention rate after 30 days compared to Android apps. This suggests that iOS users tend to stick with their apps for a longer period.
But before jumping in, it's important to weigh the potential benefits and challenges of hiring an iOS developer.
In this blog post, we'll explore the key advantages along with common pain points and considerations when adding iOS expertise to your team. With the right information, you can make an informed decision on the best path forward for your mobile initiatives.
Benefits of Hiring an iOS App Developer
Hiring a skilled iOS app developer can be extremely advantageous for companies looking to build, improve, or maintain an app presence among Apple users. While many general mobile app development agencies may claim iOS expertise, partnering with developers who specialize exclusively in iOS development brings unique benefits that lead to superior end products.
The key perks of hiring a dedicated iOS app developer include:
Access to Specialized Expertise
The single biggest benefit of hiring an iOS developer is gaining access to specialized skills and knowledge around designing, developing, and optimizing mobile applications. Building a polished, high-performing iOS app requires expertise across Objective-C and Swift languages as well as mastery of the latest Apple frameworks and API integrations.
Most businesses don’t have this technical depth in-house already, so partnering with developers who live and breathe iOS is invaluable. They can build the robust front-end and back-end architecture needed for smooth iOS apps.
Reduced Development Time and Costs
Seasoned iOS developers have the proven processes and best practices to build custom iOS apps faster and more affordably than most internal teams. They are intimately familiar with Apple’s stringent app guidelines and can navigate the app submission and approval process smoothly, saving you time.
Their technical prowess also means writing clean, optimized code that won't bloat your app. This translates into reduced QA time and faster time-to-market.
Improved Quality and Performance
Given their extensive experience designing and launching iOS apps, developers can craft high-performing apps that delight your customers. They are current on Apple's interface standards and can build intuitive UX that aligns with platform guidelines.
The flawless design maximizes adoption, engagement, and conversions. Developers also optimize under-the-hood with efficient algorithms, robust logic, and security best practices for smooth performance.
Greater Flexibility and Scalability
Whether you need an entire iOS app or specific new features, an experienced developer can deliver on-demand without requiring full-time engineering staff. This flexible method of hiring iOS developers lets you scale up or down based on business needs.
You also have access to niche or emerging skills like SwiftUI, ARKit, HealthKit, and Wallet apps without training up team members.
Peace of Mind
A reputable iOS developer instills confidence that your app vision is in good hands. They manage risk with proven QA and security protocols, along with robust pre-launch and post-launch support. Top developers stand behind their work as well. This lifts the burden from your team and executives.
Access to the Latest Technologies
Apple is constantly releasing new frameworks like Core ML, RealityKit, and more for enriching iOS apps. Partnering with an active iOS developer ensures your team has exposure to these emerging technologies to build cutting-edge user experiences.
They can guide you on incorporating innovations like machine learning and augmented reality into your mobile strategy.
Improved Customer Experience
At the end of the day, hiring an expert iOS developer directly translates into better customer experiences for your brand. Sleek intuitive design, fast performance, and delighted features make for happy engaged users. Bugs and crashes lead to frustration. By getting the app development right the first time, you delight customers rather than disappoint them.
A survey by Google found that 62% of people who have a negative experience on a mobile device will not make a future purchase from that company, regardless of how aesthetically pleasing or data-driven its marketing campaigns are.
As we've seen, expanding your app development capacity with an iOS pro offers tremendous upside. However, the hiring process also poses challenges worth examining.
Challenges of Hiring an iOS App Developer
While access to specialized skills is invaluable, hiring the wrong iOS developer can be detrimental. Here are some of the common challenges of hiring iOS app developers to be aware of:
Finding a Qualified Developer
The iOS skills market is flooded with subpar freelancers and agencies. Identifying truly expert talent with a proven track record of building successful apps requires vigilant vetting.
Most clients lack the technical insights to properly evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of candidates. Interviews and code samples only reveal so much. Hiring managers must look for subtle red flags.
Read more: The Key Steps for Finding and Hiring the Right Dedicated Developers
Negotiating a Fair Price
iOS app developer cost is always a factor when outsourcing development. However, companies often underestimate the true cost of quality iOS work by top devs. There’s substantial variance in rates based on expertise, tools, processes, and more. The allure of the lowest cost can backfire without aligning on the scope. Be wary of drastically underpriced bids.
The Long Hiring Cycle
Even after identifying promising candidates, the hiring process takes time. From initial outreach to scoping, interviews, assessments, references, and negotiations, onboarding an iOS developer generally takes weeks or months. This delays timelines, especially if the resource cannot start immediately. Tight deadlines require prescient hiring.
The Cultural Differences
Effective collaboration requires aligning work cultures between teams. However, some iOS developers have drastically different working styles and values. Bridging gaps in communication, availability, project management, and team interaction can take heavy lifting. Mismatched expectations upfront amplify friction.
Verifying Past Work and References
Unlike interviewing individuals, assessing the track record of agencies and freelancers brings extra challenges. Applicants can exaggerate achievements from past clients. Verifying references and marketplace reputation takes significant legwork pre-hire. Some clients learn this lesson the hard way.
With careful planning, many of these pitfalls can be avoided. The next section explores key considerations when searching for your ideal iOS partner.
Things to Consider When Hiring iOS App Developers
Hiring the right iOS developer for business involves evaluating several criteria:
Scope of the Project
Every app project has unique needs in terms of features, complexity, timeframe, budget, and resources required. Defining detailed technical and functional requirements upfront is essential for matching projects to developer expertise. A simple e-commerce app has vastly different scoping needs versus a social app with custom animations and real-time data syncing.
Budget
Be clear about budgets or cost constraints when beginning your search. More complex or rushed timelines justify bigger budgets to attract talent. Transparency combined with realistic expectations prevents surprises around quotes you receive. Adjust scope where possible to match promising candidates within target budgets.
Timeline
Development timelines vary widely by project and developer availability. Anticipate how quickly you need an MVP or full-scale app live in the App Store. Convey these pressures to candidates to assess bandwidth for turnaround times. For shorter timeframes, identify developers who can start immediately with no ramp-up needed.
Specific Skills and Experience
Evaluate if the developer has the specific technical skills needed for your iOS app, like Swift programming, previous experience with similar apps, API integration abilities, or expertise in augmented reality and CoreML. Match developers with granular strengths meeting your needs rather than generalists.
Communication and Collaboration Style
Decide on your preferred sync cadence for status updates as well as tooling for collaboration. Make sure developers are comfortable with your requirements for transparency, meetings, messaging, and project management. Strong communicators who mesh with your team ultimately deliver the best results.
Evaluating the specific needs of your iOS initiative makes it easier to pinpoint the right resource or agency. The good news is that the thriving community of specialized iOS developers gives you plenty of options to deliver your mobile strategy.
Conclusion
As we've explored, iOS mobile apps are a must for modern businesses but also a complex undertaking. The advantages of partnering with expert iOS developers make the investment well worth it.
Their specialized skills and experience translate directly into happy customers and ROI. Just be sure to do your due diligence to find the right experts aligned with your specific needs. With the perfect iOS partner, you can bring your mobile vision to life and take your business to the next level.
For assistance building your next iOS app, contact ThinkODC. Our experienced team of iOS developers is ready to provide expertise for MVP builds and enterprise-level initiatives.
Let's chat about how we can translate your mobile app goals into reality and take your customer experience to new heights.
