Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
iOS
iOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple. It was released in 2007 for the
iPhone and the iPod Touch, and then was extended to support the iPad. It is Apple's
specific policy that the iOS cannot be installed on non-Apple devices.
With around 25 million devices sold in the last quarter of 2012 (falling from 35 million
in Q2) and more than 250 million of total units sold, the iOS that powers the iPhone
(the iPad and iPod as well) is, together with Android, the best target platform for
those who intend to develop mobile games.
The Apple Store, the distribution platform where iPhone apps can be downloaded,
hosts more than 700,000 applications and downloads have been counted in the or-
der of more than 30 billion.
The direct manipulation of icons using multi-touch gestures is the basic concept be-
hind the iOS user interface and a trademark of mobile devices developed by Apple.
Regardless of many attempts to imitate its distinctive user experience by other man-
ufacturers, the iPhone must be acknowledged as the device that offers the best
UI\UX in the entire smartphone market.
The interface elements are sliders, switches, and buttons. The interaction is via ac-
tions, such as swiping, tapping, and pinching, with each of these actions having a
meaning in the Apple iOS environment.
Applications also make use of the sensors and other features, such as the accelero-
meter, to obtain effects, such as shaking the device to undo the last action or rotating
it to switch between portrait and landscape modes.
iOS is Apple's mobile version of the OS X operating system used on Apple com-
puters, but not many people know that the OS X operating system is Unix based.
Apple tends to be a company with a strong bottom-up control policy on their devices.
A positive consequence is that updates of the iOS platform are released methodically
and developers are informed when updates will be coming, in order to plan accord-
ingly and be sure that their newly developed apps will keep working and will be stable
on the new platform.
