Apple has an enormous and growing fan-base all over the world. And with good reason: their computers—and especially their mobile devices—are the last word in tech when it comes to style and sophistication. But beneath the sleek exterior of the latest model iPhone is something even more impressive: a plethora of slick, high-performance apps to satisfy every need and desire. Sold (or given away) out of Apple App Store, these standalone programs are engineered for performance, security, and above all, a great user experience.
So who programs these apps? Why, an iOS developer, of course. And these in-demand programmers are some of the highest paid in the industry, with an average salary in the US of over 100K per year.
What does it take to join the elite of the programming world? That’s what we’ll cover in this article, whether you’re looking to land your very first programming job as an iOS dev or planning a career that will take you all the way to senior developer.
The Basics
An iOS developer typically works with one of two main programming languages: Objective-C or Swift. If you want to write iOS apps, you’ll need to become a master of one or both of them. Objective-C was the language of choice for Apple developers for years. It’s built on C and shares many of the features of that language, though it’s considerably easier to work with. Swift, on the other hand, is Apple’s own invention. It’s lightweight, secure and powerful. And perhaps most importantly for the novice programmer: It’s not based on C. That means Swift is generally easier for new programmers to read and understand, since it was intended for rapid program and app development on Apple operating systems and doesn’t have any of that “C baggage” that some programmers complain about in Objective-C. Swift is also supported and strongly encouraged by Apple, as you might expect. All of this means that many people think it’s the way of the future for macOS and iOS developers. So if you’re just starting out, Swift may be your best bet. It’s probably easier to learn, and it has the full backing of the people who make the OS that you’ll be developing for! But if you’re coming from C and think you could pick up Objective-C quickly, or if you already know the language, there’s no reason you can’t start as an iOS developer today—the language isn’t going away any time soon!