I think that the rapid uptake of new versions of iOS, coupled with the relatively homogenous nature of the device ecosystem is one of the most underappreciated advantages iOS has over Android, at least for developers. Even so, supporting iOS 6 and 7 across iPhone and iPad can be a serious undertaking. I can't imagine trying to support a popular app on Android, where you have to deal not just with a wide range of operating system versions, but also a staggeringly large number of devices, many of which have their own quirks. No offense intended to my Java-writing, Dalvik-targeting friends out there, but I think that I'd probably just go back full time to building web apps if Android was the only game in town.
To be fair, it seems like most Android developers recommend abandoning 2.x, and focusing exclusively on the 4.x releases, as Gingerbread (Android 2.3) usage has significantly declined over the past year.
Fortunately, for those of us lucky enough to work on iOS, it looks like—just a few months after its release—iOS 7 adoption is around three quarters of all users. This data from Apple is further corroborated by what you can see from MixPanel. Furthermore, iOS 6 usage is only slightly higher than Android's Gingerbread. Although I can't speak to your exact circumstances or business needs, were I starting a new app today, I would skip iOS 6 altogether and only support iOS 7.
Best,
Aaron
What We're Reading
- Apple's App Store Usage Numbers Suggest iOS 7 Adoption at 74%
- Building Android first
- The Eero programming language
- Don't Start a Company, Kid
- Reliable Releases on a Reliable Schedule
- Why I Don't Recommend Auto-Renewable Subscriptions, Even If Apple Lets Your App Use Them
- NSNotification & NSNotificationCenter
- Building an Open, Drop-in Replacement of UITableView
App of the Week
Control of the Week
Canvas
Animate in Xcode without code. MIT licensed. |
Weekly Roundup
LumberjackConsole
On-device CocoaLumberjack console with support for search, filters and more. Apache 2.0 licensed. |
LMAlertView
LMAlertView aims to be an end-to-end, customisable clone of UIAlertView for iOS 7. Identical frost/gaussian blur effect, colours, CALayer animations. MIT licensed. |
RMMultipleViewsController
This is an iOS control for showing multiple view controller in one view controller and selecting one with a segmented control MIT licensed. |
TSValidatedTextField
This is simple and ready to use subclass of UITextField that allows you to validate text in the text field with pattern you set. Apache 2.0 licensed. |
MINavigationController
An UINaviagtionController subclass to easily implement push and pop actions with neat animation.
MIT licensed. |
TQMultistageTableView
TQMultistageTableView是一个分3层的列表控件,第一层点击后,可展开第二层列表,第二层点击可展开第三层视图。层之间展开和关闭是互斥的,同时只有一个展开的列表层级。支持最低IOS版本为 IOS6.0 。 MIT licensed. |
JSQSystemSoundPlayer
A fancy Obj-C wrapper for iOS System Sound Services. MIT licensed. |
ETFoursquareImages
When you scroll, image's shown area will become bigger. Like it appears on places' page in Foursquare app. MIT licensed. |
LSCTableView
This is an open reimplementation of UITableView that strives to be a high performance, API-compatible, drop-in replacement class. MIT licensed. |
SPHChatBubble
Sphchatbubble to use in chat screens. BSD licensed. |
RFMarkdownTextView
This is a UITextView that is supposed to replicate the comment toolbar in iOctocat (http://ioctocat.com) with auto-insert markdown functionality. MIT licensed. |
BTGlassScrollView
Inspired by Yahoo Weather App, this easy to use view replicates its look and feel. Apache 2.0 licensed. |
HUChart
A simple (but the first) semi circle chart (half pie chart) for iOS to draw semi-circle chart for some cases which has a LITTLE SPACE to make a full circle chart. MIT licensed. |
TDImageColors
iOS Library used to detect a number of most used colors in a UIImage.
MIT licensed. |
MZAppearance
UIAppearance proxy for custom objects basen on NSInvocation. MIT licensed. |
RFKeyboardToolbar
This is a flexible UIView and UIButton subclass to add customized buttons and toolbars to your UITextFields/UITextViews. This is used in https://www.cocoacontrols.com/controls/rfmarkdowntextview to produce the toolbar. MIT licensed. |
Pulsing Halo
A CALayer subclass for indicating Pulsing Halo. MIT licensed. |
RFMathTextField
A simple validator/equation answerer. MIT licensed. |
SDCAlertView
SDCAlertView adds a contentView property to a pixel-for-pixel clone of UIAlertView MIT licensed. |
RFTapEditLabel
UILabel subclass with UIAlertView editing. Support for masked passwords and placeholders. MIT licensed. |
YouQue-Game
classic 4 or more game at https://itunes.apple.com/mr/app/youque/id721318647?mt=8 MIT licensed. |
Vkontakte iOS SDK
Powerful & flexible Vkontakte iOS SDK MIT licensed. |
NAModalSheet
RFPasswordGenerator
I found this (http://neilang.com/entries/how-to-write-a-password-generator/) great article about writing your own Password Generator so I decided to create one. How To Get Started:
Enjoy! Follow me on Twitter @rfunk82 Public Domain licensed. |
RSCameraSwitcher
A pure code implementation of http://dribbble.com/shots/929359-Camera-Switch with beautiful animations. MIT licensed. |