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(ref: Apple Dev Document)

The proper use of table view cells, whether off-the-shelf or custom cell objects, is a major factor in the performance of table views. Ensure that your application does the following three things:

• Reuse cells. Object allocation has a performance cost, especially if the allocation has to happen repeatedly over a short period—say, when the user scrolls a table view. If you reuse cells instead of allocating new ones, you greatly enhance table view performance.
• Avoid relayout of content. When reusing cells with custom subviews, refrain from laying out those subviews each time the table view requests a cell. Lay out the subviews once, when the cell is created.
• Use opaque subviews. When customizing table view cells, make the subviews of the cell opaque, not transparent.