Why no IOS mobile app?
Posted 2 years ago by Brad Trammell (Switch)
One of the biggest questions I get as Administrator is "Why do we have an Android mobile app, but we don't have one for Apple devices?".
Well the answer is a simple one, it comes down to Apple's Developer Program. To develop and maintain an IOS application for iPad, iPhone or other Apple devices, it costs an obscene amount of money annually, on top of that. It costs money for each application you wish to publish.
We simply can not justify spending this type of money on an application that will ultimately be made available for free, especially since the application doesn't generate any revenue to pay for itself.
What can I do as an IOS user?
As an Apple user, you can use this website to view all of the same content that is available for IOS users, since they are both built on the same core architecture. Depending on the feature, you may have access to something that is simply unavailable to Android users. So there is a trade off in feature availability, but for the most part these systems integrate seemlessly.
There may be an IOS version available in the future, but at the moment it doesn't seem likely unless Apple re-evaluates the requirements for it's Developer Program.
