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Top five iOS 8 developer concerns

iOS 8 will brings 4,000 new APIs to Apple's mobile platform, and this means developers are going to have to work hard to both implement new features and deal with bugs rapidly.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

iOS 8 is coming, and within a few weeks of its launch it will be powering the majority of iPhone and iPads out there. That means that developers need to get their ducks in a row and get ready for the new release.

But iOS 8 is a radical departure from iOS 7, and it brings with it a range of new features, and according to Andrew Levy, CEO of app performance management solution Crittercism, the new release is causing concern for developers.

Levy highlights five issues that are of particular concern.

Increased customization and flexibility

iOS 8 has 4,000 new APIs, and this will undoubtedly result in headaches for developers, both during the initial development and testing phase, and after release.

Increased reliance on the cloud

A great many new iOS features rely on the ability to connect, network and sync with iCloud services. This not only means a higher demand on the reliability of the cloud service, but also that thought needs to be put into optimizing performance.

IoT support

With the inclusion of both HomeKit and HealthKit, iPhones and iPads running iOS 8 will be expected to connect to more devices than ever. Everything will need to be seamless, from the device connecting to the iPhone or iPad, to the apps' interaction with the device.

New device support

A new iPhone means that app developers will be in a race to release apps that fully take advantage of the capabilities of the new OS as well as the device.

New Swift programming language

Apple's new programming language for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch, Swift, will be released with iOS 8, and just as any new language, it will introduce complexities that developers will have to learn and adapt to.

While there 's nothing here that developers can't cope with, the speed that iOS 8 will spread once it is released – we can expect based on historical data for it to be on about 60 percent of devices in a few weeks – means that developers will have to move fast to address issues with their apps.

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