Understand the Values of Modern Mobile Development
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Explain the importance of trust in mobile development.
- Describe the three values of developing with Swift, Xcode, and the Salesforce Mobile SDK on iOS.
This module was produced in collaboration with Apple, which owns, supports, and maintains the Apple products, services, and features described here. Use of Apple products, services, and features is governed by privacy policies and service agreements maintained by Apple.
Build Trust in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
The pace of innovation is faster than ever, with several key technologies disrupting the status quo.
- Cloud
- Social media
- Mobile
- IoT
- AI
If we put ourselves in the shoes of business leaders, it can be easy to look at developments across these areas and see vast opportunity. You can connect with customers in new ways, build deeper relationships with a wealth of new data, and go full speed ahead into an exciting, technologically driven world. Overall, that’s a good thing. Your customers should be at the center of everything you do.
But take a second look.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution puts new responsibilities on our shoulders. As a developer wanting to work in these areas, it’s important to understand how trust plays into your work and the tools you use.
Is It Really Such a Big Deal?
Customers must trust your app before they can love it. Building an app that does what you say it does is the first step. Consider this scenario.
You are a developer for a car insurance company. A competitor comes out with a mobile app. At first it feels like they beat you to market.
There is a lot of press. All the company’s ads feature the sleek new app. There’s a lot of talk about how it’s easy to review your account and file claims on the spot.
The buzz is short-lived, however.
- Customer complaints flood in—the app crashes constantly and people can’t even log on.
- When they can get in, they find the information is all wrong.
- There’s even word about how private information, like ID and credit card numbers, is being exposed on some pages and in automated emails.
They quickly take the app down but the damage is done—customer attrition, bad press, and lawsuits abound. Phew, thankfully that’s not your app.
Soon you get a one-line email from your CEO with your manager cc’d. She says, “Let’s show the competition and our members how we can do better.”
The Modern Mobile Development Experience Builds Trust
Trust needs to be at several levels in the development process. You should be able to trust the tools you use. These tools should enable you to build trust with your customers. It’s a simple proposition, but difficult to do right.
This is one of the reasons that Salesforce has teamed up with Apple—to offer modern, trusted mobile application development tools in Swift and Xcode, integrated with Salesforce’s trusted platform through the Salesforce Mobile Software Development Kit (SDK) for iOS.
To outline the shared values that we bring to your experience, mighty developer, we focus on:
Code Safety and Proactivity. Swift is a language that helps you write code that’s less likely to crash your app. It helps you catch issues before they affect your customers. This includes must-have features in error handling, code clarity, and initialization. If these terms seem lofty, that’s okay. We review these more in-depth in the next unit, where we focus on the tools themselves.
Unified Development. Xcode is the integrated development environment (IDE) that enables you to write code, build, and test across all Apple devices. This helps you get the job done without having to go back and forth between multiple tools and different experiences, which introduces needless risks.
Native Integration. The Salesforce Mobile SDK for iOS is the tool that helps you build native, high-performing iOS apps that integrate with Salesforce. It takes advantage of all the trusted mobile features that iOS has to offer, and combines that with the flexibility and trusted enterprise security of the Salesforce platform. Trust on trust on trust.
Next Up
In the next unit, we explore how the Salesforce platform works with Swift and Xcode to enable you to build native apps using the Salesforce Mobile SDK for iOS.