What Do I Need To Start Making iPhone, iPad or Mac Apps?
Here is a list of what you will need:
- Current Mac (not Power PC)
- Up to date version of OSX
- Registration with Apple’s developer program (free)
- XCode IDE (free download for registered Apple developers)
How Do I Learn To Develop Software For The iPhone, iPad or Mac?
You will need to learn how to write computer code in C and Objective-C and then learn how to use iOS SDK (iOS Software Development Kit). It will help if you already know how to program a computer but you can also learn how to do this from scratch (be prepared to spend a bit more time though if you never programmed before).
Can You Make An App For Me Or My Company?
No. At this time I am not available for contract work. As you may imagine my work schedule is also very tight and putting aside weeks or months to work on a new project is just not an option this year.
Do You Do On-Site Teaching?
I do have a three day program that I developed and honed over the past year that I could present to you. Because of the time and possible travel I do not do these often but depending on the circumstances I may be available.
My rate is $1,599 per student (minimum 8 students – max 20). Please do not contact me unless these rates are ok – my availability for this type of event is extremely tight.
The training program follows my “No-BS” style where I use sliders, demos and source code to show how to use iPhone SDK. Most of the time is spend on Cocoa-Touch where we focus on UIKit as well as come Core Services like Core Data and Web Services.
The training is hands on and is primarily a coaching experience with more than half the time spend on detailed exercises that I provide. You should be able to create you own utility app at the end of these three days.
Knowledge of an object oriented programming language is highly highly recommend before attending this type of training. Attendees also get access to my product website which includes source code examples and access to the workshop content.
You may contact me at matt[at]mobileappmastery.com if your company is interested in this type of intensive training.
How Much Money Do iPhone Apps Make?
This question is interesting because there is a huge range – the apps in the top 100 lists can be making thousands of dollars each day.
Obviously there are many success stories from the app store and many of these are one or two person independent shops. Other apps never make it while some manage to generate a sustainable income. The number I hear often is that the average app will generate $2,500 per year in revenue.
From my own experience I think this number is a good estimate. However, I would expect a more reasonably successful app to be able to hit about $10,000 per year.
While this is sobering keep in mind that the actual time and cost for an experienced developer to make an app is also very low.
Once you know how to do this you can make really good apps in a matters of days or maybe a weeks. Generally your only cost (other than your time) is a designer if you choose to use one. What this means is that you will need to be prepared to keep costs low and accept that you may need to have more that one app out or have your app across all three Apple platforms (iPhone, iPad and Mac).
