You could say that I am biased because I do all my daily development work on a Windows machine and use a lot of Google tools. But I've been very frustrated by how much money it costs to develop a phone app for Apple platforms.
First of all, you HAVE to have an Apple computer to develop for the Apple platform. The converse is not true for Android, you can develop for Android using a Mac. But Apple forces you to have an Apple computer in order to produce a testing profile through their development environment, XCode. So when I wanted to develop Monster Cache for iOS, I had to go buy an Apple computer that ran a certain version of XCode, which translated to needing OS X 10.7 (Lion). So I got a used iMac for about $400.
Next cost is the fee for a developer account. For a Google Play developer account, there is a one-time fee of $25. For Apple, its a YEARLY fee of $100. I just had to pay for my second year.
After paying for both of those, I was able to develop Monster Cache for iOS and make updates for a little over a year. Then iOS 7 came out. Developing for iOS 7 requires the latest version of XCode, XCode 5. XCode 5 requires that your Mac's operating system be at least OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion). Apple no longer distributes version 10.8, so if you want to upgrade through the App Store, then you have to upgrade to OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). Of course, my older iMac does not support 10.9. So I will have to buy another Mac, which means another few hundred dollars.
The last Apple-specific cost I've been seeing is far less significant, and may not even be Apple's fault exactly, but its just a little salt in the wound. When people make In App Purchases, Google and Apple transfer the money to my bank account at the end of the month. Apparently, Google's transfer is a domestic one, but Apple's is an international transfer. My bank charges me $3.50 for each monthly transfer that Apple makes to my account.
Blog about the development of Monster Cache, a virtual geocaching game for Android and iPhone platforms
Showing posts with label ios 7. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ios 7. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Android 4.4 and iOS 7
The European launch got sidetracked by Android 4.4, aka Kit Kat, and iOS7. It all started when....November 12th I did a presentation for the Google Developers Group here in Kansas City.
A few people in the audience downloaded the app. Since these were avid Google users, a couple of them had the new Android 4.4 installed on their phones. They quickly learned, and showed me, that the app crashed on the registration screen right when you tried to open the dropdown menu that listed state names. I decided I better get that fixed before I opened the app up for wider distribution. Since it was an OS-specific issue, I figured it might be fixed by updating PhoneGap. I stopped updating PhoneGap when I realized it was going to break my In App Purchasing, so that wasn't a great option. Instead, I just put in a hack so that Android 4.4 replaces the drop down list with a type-in text field :-)
I made one other small bug fix to update a user's view range right after binoculars are purchased, then I released that version to Android. I then built it on Apple and submitted that version for iOS. I soon got an email from Apple that said "Missing recommended icon file - The bundle does not contain an app icon for iPhone / iPod Touch of exactly '120x120' pixels, in .png format". And there were a couple other sizes. Turns out they are all new sizes for iOS 7. We've already created sooooo many different size icons for Android and iOS, it was frustrating to have to make more. But our designer, Kent, got them to me pretty quickly, then all I had to do was get them in the bundle file. I couldn't remember how to do that, but I found this post on Stack Overflow, which helped. I resubmitted this afternoon, and no email yet about missing icons, so knock on wood, I think it worked. Made it just before Apple's December 21st cutoff for submitting apps before they take a week break of not allowing new submissions. That's from their email that said "iTunes Connect will be temporarily unavailable from Saturday, December 21, to Friday, December 27, 2013."
So now I'll wait until the iOS app is approved, and then on to Germany! Current Legends count is 158 with Whopper on top with 743 monsters!
A few people in the audience downloaded the app. Since these were avid Google users, a couple of them had the new Android 4.4 installed on their phones. They quickly learned, and showed me, that the app crashed on the registration screen right when you tried to open the dropdown menu that listed state names. I decided I better get that fixed before I opened the app up for wider distribution. Since it was an OS-specific issue, I figured it might be fixed by updating PhoneGap. I stopped updating PhoneGap when I realized it was going to break my In App Purchasing, so that wasn't a great option. Instead, I just put in a hack so that Android 4.4 replaces the drop down list with a type-in text field :-)
I made one other small bug fix to update a user's view range right after binoculars are purchased, then I released that version to Android. I then built it on Apple and submitted that version for iOS. I soon got an email from Apple that said "Missing recommended icon file - The bundle does not contain an app icon for iPhone / iPod Touch of exactly '120x120' pixels, in .png format". And there were a couple other sizes. Turns out they are all new sizes for iOS 7. We've already created sooooo many different size icons for Android and iOS, it was frustrating to have to make more. But our designer, Kent, got them to me pretty quickly, then all I had to do was get them in the bundle file. I couldn't remember how to do that, but I found this post on Stack Overflow, which helped. I resubmitted this afternoon, and no email yet about missing icons, so knock on wood, I think it worked. Made it just before Apple's December 21st cutoff for submitting apps before they take a week break of not allowing new submissions. That's from their email that said "iTunes Connect will be temporarily unavailable from Saturday, December 21, to Friday, December 27, 2013."
So now I'll wait until the iOS app is approved, and then on to Germany! Current Legends count is 158 with Whopper on top with 743 monsters!
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