How to Make an iPhone App? [Complete Guide]

Planning to build an iPhone app but don’t know where to start? Don’t worry, we have got your back with this article that will tell you everything about how to make an iPhone app.

As per the statistics, more than 1.36 billion people in the world use iPhone in 2024 with 136 million reported in the USA only. The best way to connect to this huge pool of audiences is by building an iOS app with a unique service offering. You can launch your business online or give a digital shape to your existing idea with an iOS app. If you have either option in your mind, this guide will help you know all about how to get started.

What are iPhone Apps?

First of all, talking about the definition of iPhone Apps or iOS apps, these are software applications designed for several purposes such as online shopping, placing orders, accessing daily utility, accessing media, sending or receiving messages, scheduling, or anything else. This software can only run on iOS devices and thus is known as iPhone or iOS apps. The iPhone users download these apps from the Apple App Store.

How to Make an iPhone App?

Relying on proficient iOS app development companies will reduce your headache to fractions, still having a general overview of the process is a good idea. It will help you ensure that everything is going as planned and any important phase of app development is not being skipped-

1. Generate an App Idea

This is the first step where you tell yourself about your app. It is important to be clear about the vision and goal that you want to achieve with your digital product. It has to be something that you can define for your app development partner. If it is some eCommerce app, or eLearning app or do you want to connect some service providers to service seekers? Brainstorm your mobile app idea so that you can give a detailed overview of your vision.

2. Do Competitive Market Research

iPhone app development is going to require a significant amount of investment. Thus, it will be good if your decision is based on particular facts and statistics. Research well the market you planning to enter. Analyze your competitors, how they are doing, and how they are connecting to their target audience. It will give you an idea about the features and functionalities of iOS apps similar to yours and how you can outperform them.

3. List the Features and Competencies of Your App

When you have gone through the competitors, it is the time when you design the layout of your iOS app. Think from the user’s perspective to know what kind of features and functionalities would they expect in the kind of app you are developing. Here, you must remember that features are the backbone of any application, so make sure your iPhone app carries sufficient as well as extraordinary features to those existing ones in the market.

4. Analyze the Prototype

Having communicated all about your applications and the features you want to see in the app, the very first deliverable from the development team will be a prototype. This is basically the raw structure that gives you an overview of the design and experience of the app. Here you can check the basic functionality of the app and seek changes or improvements.

5. Development Phase

Once you have finalized the prototype of the app, backend, and frontend developers will write the codes and perform the necessary coding for your iOS app. All the features and functionalities of the application will be installed in the app by developers. At the same time, third-party support and APIs will also be integrated to make your iOS app. This is one of the core stages of the iPhone app development process.

6. Testing

When developers are done with their part in the app development process, the digital product is passed to the quality analysis team. This team consists of the testers who make sure that your app is running smoothly to provide the best user experience. Several types of tests are conducted at this stage which include performance testing, speed testing, identifying and removing the bugs, and much more.

7. Deployment

Deployment is the stage where your iPhone app will be deployed to the Apple App Store. For the same, you have to pay an annual fee of $99 to the Apple App Store. This is the medium that makes your application available to your target audience.

8. Marketing

To tell your target audience about your app, marketing plays a significant role. Take the support of various marketing tools and strategies such as email marketing, digital marketing, and social media marketing. It will help you bring traffic to your iOS app. There are millions of apps on Apple App Store and the absence of marketing might not be a good thing for your application.

9. Maintenance and updates

This is the final stage where you provide timely updates in your software. Technological trends are changing every day and to keep the target audience attracted to your platform, you have to keep providing the new stuff to them. At the same time, maintenance helps you remove the bugs as identified time-to-time.

What Types of iPhone Apps Can You Make?

The world is going digital and people are fulfilling all types of needs from smartphones, websites, and applications. So, when you plan to build an iOS app, there are more options than you can ever imagine. Hundreds of services are out there which produce thousands of app ideas to deliver those services. Some core types of apps that will help cover all these types are-

List of Top 10 iPhone Apps

When you plan to make an iOS app, you should vision and know about the top iOS apps which can be found on the device of any iPhone user. This will give you an idea about how you should manage your software to attract that huge customer base. The following list has been referred from Statista, the year 2022-

Related Guides:

How to Make an Android App?
How to Make an Android Game?
How to Make an iPhone Game?

Benefits of Developing an iPhone App

While investing a good amount to develop an iOS app, you should be curious about what benefits you will leverage. So, here are some advantages of building an iPhone app–

1. Better App Revenue

According to facts, iOS apps have better Returns on Investment as compared to Android apps. If your platform is providing worthy services to the customers against a minimal fee or charges, the iOS users are less likely to be money minded in spending. There are more chances of bringing paid customers on iOS apps as compared to users of other platforms.

2. Security

Apple Devices are known for their security superiorities, a glance of which can also be experienced in iOS apps. While bringing your presence to the online platform with the help of an iOS app, it is important that you can promise security to your target audience and their data. A range of APIs, firewalls, data handling systems, and encryption technologies work together to protect your application from any kind of breaching or hacking chances.

3. High-quality Standards

One of the biggest benefits of working with the iOS operating system is that your application has to be according to the high-quality standards of Apple’s App Store in order to deploy it in the market. This rule set by Apple automatically enhances the quality of your iOS application. When the iPhone apps are deployed on the app market, they are first passed through performance testing, speed testing, and other many measurements to ensure the high quality of the software.

4. Established Customer Base

While Android might be a stronger marketplace when considered from a population point of view, Apple has its established customer base. The performance and speed of Apple devices eliminate the chances of substitution among their user base. People using Apple devices are more likely to stick to its operating system. Thus, there are only the chances of increasing the target audience of iPhone apps.

5. Tech-savvy Audience

iOS users tend to be more tech-savvy when compared to the Android user base. So, there are more chances that the business you want to launch online with your iOS app will get more responses from the audience. At the same time, the purchasing power of iPhone users is considered to be more than Android users which can be beneficial for your app idea.

6. Lower Fragmentation

While you might witness frequent updates in other operating systems, Apple generally introduces one update in its system every year. So, it reduces your need to make frequent changes and spend dollars every now and then. This is a good benefit of developing an iPhone app. Not only it saves dollars but also the testing time is reduced due to less number of OS updates.

7. Less Development Time

It takes 28% less time to build an iPhone app than an app for any other platform. The reason behind the statement is that apps of any other platform have to undergo testing for different devices, resolutions, screen sizes, and OS versions. On the other hand, iOS apps have to undergo testing for only iOS devices. This significantly reduces your time to market, helping you deploy the software as soon as possible.

Top Platforms Used to Make iPhone Apps

Here are the top platforms that are used worldwide to build an iPhone app-

1. Xcode

Xcode is Apple’s Integrated Development Environment for Mac and iOS. It is a reliable and fast app development software that helps you build different applications for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac. A range of elements like frameworks, tools, compilers, and iOS SDK to design, write, and develop code is included in this platform. At the same time, you can also manage workflow by creating, testing, optimizing, deploying, and publishing the application, all in one place.

Key Highlights

• Single Window Interface
• Intelligent Source Code Editing
• UI Design
• Integrated Debugging

2. AppCode

This is a powerful app builder that comes with various shortcuts and actions to make the iOS app development process. This is one of the preferences for developers to make an iPhone app. Various programming languages can be used with this platform such as Swift, Objective C, C, C++ etc. AppCode framework supports different technologies including CSS, XML, and HTML. Moreover, it provides essential integrations like built-in reveal reports and CocoaPods manager.

Key Highlights

• Smart Editor
• Navigation and Search
• Editor Customization

3. CodeRunner

The core competency of CodeRunner is that you are free to code in any language. This is the Integrated Development Environment where the app development can be performed using 25+ languages. Moreover, this platform comes with debugger support as well as syntax highlighting for Swift.

Key Highlights

• 25+ Language support
• Code Completion
• Live Errors and Linting

4. Flutter

Flutter is Google’s UI Toolkit that helps in developing Natively compiled applications for different means like desktop, web, and mobile. This is one of the great choices to build an iPhone app. One of the core competencies is that you can easily make UI-related changes using Flutter. At the same time, it also helps in developing apps for Android, macOS, ChromeOS, and Linux.

Key Highlights

• Single UI and Business Logic in All Platforms
• Reduced development cost

5. BuildFire

BuildFire is one of the most powerful iPhone app development software for iOS. It helps you to build an iPhone app with ease due to its drag-and-drop feature. Moreover, if you want to test the platform before paying, it even allows you to take 14 days free trial and then you can switch to a paid subscription.

Key Highlights

• Interactive Emulator
• Custom Feature Development

Cost to Build an iPhone App

The cost to make an iPhone app can only be determined by placing your idea, vision, features, and requirements in place. There are different factors that will determine the cost of your iPhone development. Thus, it is next to impossible to give a price tag to app development as it is highly viable. If you try to stick to a budget without efficiently analyzing your requirement with the help of an iPhone development company, you might end up brutally affecting your budget strategy.

Following are the factors that will influence and determine the cost to develop an iOS app-

• The complexity of your project
• Features selection
• UI design of your app
• Country of the development team
• Maintenance and post-development support
• Third-party services and API integrations

Conclusion

With millions of users utilizing iPhones and other devices iOS has resulted in burgeoning demand for good iOS apps. This software is undoubtedly the catalyst to increase the usability of the device. If you have any services or business ideas in your mind, the decision to build an iPhone app can be the right way to give digital wireframe to your idea. A range of iOS apps has achieved a user base of millions, bringing handsome revenue in the owner’s pocket. So, we invite you to give a digital shape to your business with our iOS app development services.

FAQs

1. How Do I Create My Own iPhone App?

First of all, you must have an idea of the app in your mind. You can contact a proficient iOS app development company to develop an iOS app for your idea or business.

2. How Much Does it Cost to Make an iPhone App?

Cost to build an iOS app depends on a range of factors such as the complexity of the app, number of features, location of developers, time taken for the project, and much more.

3. What are the Best Platforms to Make the iPhone App?

There is a range of platforms that you can rely on to build your own iOS app which includes Xcode, AppCode, Flutter, CodeRunner, etc.

4. How Much Does it Cost to Deploy Apps on Apple App Store?

To deploy and maintain your application on the Apple App Store, you have to pay an annual fee of $99.

5. What Language the iOS Apps are Written In?

Swift is the most preferred programming language created by Apple to building apps for iOS, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch.