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Tag: developers

  • TestFlight Beta Testing Goes Live For All iOS Developers

    TestFlight Beta Testing Goes Live For All iOS Developers

    Apple has pushed its TestFlight Beta testing service live for everyone, the company revealed on its developer news portal today. Registered developers can now invite up to 1,000 beta testers to try out their iOS apps, using emailed invitations sent via the iTunes Connect portal. TestFlight, the beta testing service Apple acquired sometime within the last year, allows developers to build teams to try out software before it launches, and report back bugs in order to prepare apps for a public launch.

    TestFlight had still been usable by devs between Apple’s acquisition of the service and now, but this marks the completion of Apple’s transition of the service to a built-in part of its developer tools. Now, TestFlight invites are distributed via iTunes Connect, as mentioned, and a dedicated TestFlight app provides the central resource for testers in terms of providing feedback and getting new builds as they’re released by developers, instead of the web portal TestFlight used pre-acquisition.

    Once external testers are invited to TestFlight, they’ll receive a link to download the official app from the App Store. There’s no longer any need to install provisioning profiles on tester devices with this shift, and there’s no need to for users to manually find and send their device’s UDID to participate. The official app will also send notifications when new builds of an app they’re testing is available, which is much more convenient than getting an email, as was the case before.

    To make an app available for the 1,000 external testers that this launch enables, an app has to pass a Beta App Review, which means it’s subject to the same App Store Review Guidelines that apply to final releases. New versions with big changes require a new review before being pushed to testers, and developers can test up to 10 apps at a time, both internally (which requires no review approval, and which is available to 25 admin or tech level team members in iTunes Connect) and externally.

    Apple has shared more about how to get started with TestFlight here, and developers who are looking to get more help can head over to the App Review team contact page (developer account and login required).

    The new TestFlight offers a lot of convenience features that should make it easier for developers to gather feedback from actual users, instead of just tech-savvy early adopters, but that review requirement might add some time to how fast builds can go out. At any rate, it’s nice to see wider beta testing options finally built directly into the platform.

  • Why App Developers Won’t Cash on Smartphone Apps

    Why App Developers Won’t Cash on Smartphone Apps

    TechHive – Mobile developers hoping to cash in on a blockbuster app have bad news from researcher Gartner: More competition and higher demands from users will make it even more difficult for developers to make money from smartphone and tablet applications.

    The Google Play app store and Apple’s iTunes store both have over one million apps. That adds up to too many choices for users, and makes it harder for developers to get noticed or make money from their applications.

    Average apps stats

    Today about 90 percent of paid applications are downloaded fewer than 500 times per day and make less than $1250 a day, according to Gartner. This is only going to get worse, thanks to greater competition. In addition, applications will have to become more sophisticated to keep up with user demands, so operations, development, testing, deployment and support will become more expensive, it said.

    This means by 2018 only one in ten thousand consumer apps will be considered a financial success by their developers, according to the market research company.

    Developers need to prepare for this scenario and should set realistic expectations. If the goal is to make money directly from the sale of the app, developers need to thoroughly assess the concept, the costs, and the opportunity, because the likelihood of success is minute, Gartner said.

    The share of free apps is also predicted to rise from 91 percent last year to 94.5 percent in 2017. In the same period, the total number of downloads is expected to grow from 102.1 billion to 268.7 billion.

    The growing number of available applications is also changing the way users find apps. Consumers can’t sort through these large numbers and instead depend on suggestions from recommendation engines, friends, social networking or advertising to discover mobile applications, according to Gartner.

    Gartner does however believe that the number of paid downloads will continue to grow, even though they are a smaller percentage of the total, and will reach 14.8 billion by 2017, compared to 9.2 billion last year.

    And there’s always the possibility of the exception: a student in a basement developing a one-of-a-kind application that becomes wildly successful, Gartner said.