Apple Tells Developers It's 64-Bit Or Bust For iOS 8 Apps Starting In February
Attention iOS developers, Apple just dropped the ban hammer on any 32-bit coding aspirations you may have had for new apps you plan to release on Apple's ecosystem. Effective February 1, 2015, all new iOS apps uploaded to the App Store must include 64-bit support and be built with the iOS 8 SDK, which is included in Xcode 6 or later.
"To enable 64-bit in your project, we recommend using the default Xcode build setting of 'Standard architectures' to build a single binary with both 32-bit and 64-bit code," Apple says.
This shouldn't come as a bombshell to iOS developers. After all, just about every current iOS device is rocking a custom 64-bit A7 or A8 series System-on-Chip (SoC). That's been true since the iPhone 5c, and with Apple's recent product launches (iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3), the iPhone 5c stands out as the only modern iOS device without 64-bit support.
What will this mean for you, the end user? That remains to be seen. Though there are performance benefits to be tapped into by moving to 64-bit, we've yet to see anything particularly meaningful on the mobile front. However, with Apple now forcing the issues, it could motivate developers to not only make the switch to 64-bit coding, but also to fine tune their new apps.
"To enable 64-bit in your project, we recommend using the default Xcode build setting of 'Standard architectures' to build a single binary with both 32-bit and 64-bit code," Apple says.
This shouldn't come as a bombshell to iOS developers. After all, just about every current iOS device is rocking a custom 64-bit A7 or A8 series System-on-Chip (SoC). That's been true since the iPhone 5c, and with Apple's recent product launches (iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3), the iPhone 5c stands out as the only modern iOS device without 64-bit support.
What will this mean for you, the end user? That remains to be seen. Though there are performance benefits to be tapped into by moving to 64-bit, we've yet to see anything particularly meaningful on the mobile front. However, with Apple now forcing the issues, it could motivate developers to not only make the switch to 64-bit coding, but also to fine tune their new apps.
