For more details and to download the Cloud SDK for iOS, visit http://developer.support.com/nexusconnectsdkios.html

  • iOS App Development Environment
    • All iOS developers use Mac for iOS app development.
    • 99% of iOS app developers, probably all, test their apps first on simulator, which is a Mac application. And, then on iphone/ipads.
    • Mac applications (i.e. simulator) mandates i386/x86_64 architecture. 
    • iPhones mandate ARM architecture. 
    • iOS SDKs must support both simulator & iphone architecture to enable developers to debug app on simulator & eventually deploy it for iPhones.

  • iOS Apps
    • ipa: An ipa is an iOS application archive file which stores an iPhone app. An ipa file is compressed with a binary for ARM architecture (which as stated above, runs only on iphones/iPad). You submit the ipa to Apple app-store for approval & availability. You can think of an ipa as being equivalent to an installer for iPhones.
    • App Footprint: This is the uncompressed version of the ipa.

  • Why is the SDK 150 MB in size?
    • Since majority of iOS App developers use simulator, it is mandatory to have i386/x86_64 architecture support. We cannot drop it. SDK actually supports multiple architectures: armv7, arm64, i386, x86_64. So the size of the SDK goes up.
    • 3rd Party Libraries.

  • Why does our SDK only contribute 11 MB to the ipa (compressed archive file storing the iOS app) and 24 MB to the app (uncompressed ipa)?
    • ipa is compressed version of the app and hence is smaller than the app. 
    • i386/x86_64 architecture is stripped out of ipa by xcode. Other optimizations by xcode also contribute in thinning the app.