In this epic iOS development guide, I’ve outlined everything that you need to know to make your own iPhone app. This guide is for the people who want to get their hands dirty and do the exciting and unique software development that is iOS SDK. If you are a developer, hobbyist or interested techno-preneur then read on.
Note this guide is already huge and it will grown and iOS grows so keep us bookmarked and join the mailing list if you want to get updated when I do change the How to Make an iPhone App Guide. So, without further ado, here is the How to Make an iPhone App Guide Introduction.
How to Make an iPhone App Guide Introduction
We are going to talk about a lot of things here, but if you want to jump right to topic that interests you do so below:
- Equipment and Skills You Need To Get Started with iOS Publishing
- Indy iPhone App Publishing Businesses
- The Big Idea
- Set up your iOS SDK Toolset
- Make your first iOS app with Xcode
- Set up your iPhone App icon, default screens and essential code entities
- Use a storyboard to compose your iPhone app user interface
- Use Core Data to compose your iPhone app’s data model
- Connect your iPhone app’s user interface and data model
Equipment and Skills You Need To Get Started with iOS Publishing
Here’s what things you need to get started
- Idea (Priceless)
- Mac ($1000)
- Xcode (free)
- Internet ($20/month)
Here’s the skills you need
- Objective-C Programming
- iOS SDK Tools
- Cocoa-Touch Frameworks
- Design
- Marketing
Note these are all programming or software development skills. This guide is primarily a guide to getting these skills, so don’t despair if you don’t know how to make mobile software yet. Everything that you need is here or linked to from here.
Here’s what you need to publish your iPhone app
- Enrollment in the Apple Developer Program ($99)
- Website ($80/year)
Indy iPhone App Publishing Businesses
Most likely, you want to make an iPhone app because you are betting on the chance that you efforts will have a significant financial reward. Ok, I know that its also really cool to do something like this and personal development and blah blah blah. But, let’s face it you have a bottom line right? So let’s break out the spreadsheets and talk about the money.
Huge Success Stories
Let’s just get this out of the way and move on. Yes, there are huge success stories coming out of the iTunes App Store every day. The list goes on, and all you have to do is look at the top 100 list on your own iPhone to see of list of successful apps that are getting downloaded 1000s of times per day and making a lot of money.
Other apps are free but are seen as so valuable that the companies that made them have been purchased for as much as one billion dollars (like Instagram). Yes, these stories are all out there and you can do a quick Google search to see them as well. But, hold on for a second.
This massive success represents 1% of the app publishers out there.
Frankly, the odds are not in your favor to be in the 1%. Of course, don’t let me stop you – the odds were not in Instagram’s or Angry Birds’ favor either and being an entrepreneur requires a little bit of insanity.
Micro Success Stories (or the Niche App Strategy)
Every month, I travel to new cities to training software developers how to make iPhone apps. On the surface, they will say they are there keep up with new technology, that they need the skill for work or something else that sounds safe. A few will get up and say that they are going to use this skill to do something from the last section like build the next Big Huge Thing that gets talked about on Mashable or whatever tech blog is popular these days.
Here is what usually comes out as the secret motivation for using up a long weekend to learn iOS development: everyone wants to make an iPhone app that doesn’t require much risk or time, that they can do in their spare time and will make enough money to support a lifestyle.
That is, everyone wants to make an iPhone app that will replace their $80,000/year software developer income.
And let’s be honest – its the dream of sitting on the beach while your *something* works for you. The problem is that this dream is actually less obtainable that the Huge Success Story dream. I can say that because, technically speaking, had achieved this success story with my own iOS apps.
I learned that this kind of success is temporary and while your current income is passive or residual you will need to keep your apps updated and continue to add new apps to support your lifestyle. When I started, I had one simple iPhone app that made enough money to replace my software developer salary.
But, I did have to keep updating the app. Then, as sales dropped I found that I had to keep making iPhone apps. By the time I stopped I had 13 apps in the store. I’ve seen other indy publishers who have 25 and 50 apps in the store to support themselves and teams.
Bottom Line you can have a micro-success story, but the income will not be passive and you will have to do work. But, I will day that this an exciting and excellent “job” to have.
How Much Money Do Middle of the Road (or Niche) Apps Make?
Let’s talk for a second about money specifically. There is not reliable way to estimate the income that most apps generate. The top apps though have been estimated to make at least $1,000 per day which savvy developers have figured out based on how many downloads there own apps need to make those lists.
More people have been sharing their middle of the road experience when it comes to app revenue. To put things into perspective here: I’m talking about people who have make iPhone apps at little risk in a relatively short amount of time that usually target a specific audience.
I call this the Niche App Strategy.
This is what I do: my apps all took around 2 months to create and the costs (outside of my time) never exceed $500 (usually for the icon). My apps averaged $6,700 per year in income (which is why I needed 13 of them). This means that I except a new application to add $500 per month in revenue to my business.
Good News
- Niche apps recoup their costs after the first month.
Bad News
- One niche app won’t pay your bills
- Even niche apps need updates and support
- Niche apps won’t break even if you have to hire a developer
Caveat
- Leveraging your app across platforms can increase value (iPhone + iPad + Mac + Web)
Reference Money and the App Store: a few figures that might help an indie developer
Starting a Consulting Business
For iOS developers who love to code, live for Objective-C and are perhaps looking to bootstrap their iPhone app consulting is a great option. You can do this on the side while working a day job or as way to pay yourself while working on the Big Huge Idea or the array of Niche Apps you hope will support your lifestyle.
iOS consultants can expect to charge at least $125 and maybe more depending on the domain knowledge and other skills that you may have. Sometimes travel can be involved. This is part of what I do for my own business, although my consulting is always as a trainer for only short periods of time.
Last Words on iPhone App Based Business
Of course, there are combinations of these three broad approaches to basing a business around mobile and lots of places in between. You may not even care about a business and just want to get down to code. That’s great, up next we’ll take the first few steps to learning what technical skills you’ll need to start to make your iPhone apps.
The Big Idea
Every iPhone app starts off as an idea. As an
iOS developer you get used to hordes of idea people coming to you with the next big idea. I’m guessing that
you’re here because you have a big idea too so let’s give this topic some space here.
I think of app ideas in two ways: the Big Problem and the App Idea.
The Big Problem
This is a somewhat nebulous idea: its that thing out there in the world that you are trying to tap into. These are the things which either inspire or bother people in their daily lives. People may turn to your app to deal with these big things or more likely, your iPhone app will be part of a channel that users tap into you get help with their Big Problem.
Some examples of Big Problems are:
- Feeling connected to others
- Looking your best
- Managing personal information
- Making a difference in the world
- Experiencing culture (including entertainment)
The better you are at understanding the Big Problem and the people who care about, the better you’ll be at generating iPhone app ideas that matter.
I wanted to point this out, because it’s really tempting for software developers (or their kin) to jump right the app idea or even the code implementation itself. Sometimes we just want to make apps because a new API is available and so our apps just become an expression of an API instead of sometimes that gets at a person’s Big Problem.
BTW: Big Problems are what you big business around – not apps or app ideas.
The App Idea
Ideally, your app idea is one expression of the Big Problem. Your app could be part of a system that addresses the problem including web sites, personal (gasp!) interaction and even your marketing or content procedures.
What is the best thing that you can do right now to address the Big Problem?
Simply enough, that is the question that your iPhone app is answering. Even though we are talking about addressing Big Problems, your app doesn’t have to be a Big App or even a Big Idea. Instant Messaging speaks to the problem of feeling connected, but it only solves a tiny technical problem (sending small messages to friends) to how we can feel connected.
Your iPhone app can address one small thing in an elegant way to chip away at the Big Problem.
STOP AND THINK Write three sentences describing the Big Problem that you are addressing. It doesn’t have to be serious, just Big.
Set up your iOS SDK Toolset
Let’s move on to get the part where we start to take some action. We’ll assume that you have an idea of where you want to start with your iOS app or maybe you just want to play around a bit. Don’t worry too much about not having an idea that’s set in stone: as with many things, this will be an iterative process.
Note developing software is always an iterative process. An iterative process is a fancy way of saying that you will be repeating a process over and over again until the product is just right. You will do this when learning software development and how to make iPhone apps. Your first product will also go through an iterative process.
Ok, so about setting up your iOS SDK Toolset. Here is what you need:
- A Newer Intel Based Mac
- Xcode
That’s basically it.
Before you ask me – YES you need the Mac.
There isn’t a great way to “hack” your windows computer and if there is I’m not the one to ask about it.
Xcode is a free app that you can get from the App Store which is right on your Mac. I’ll assume that you are running Mac OSX 10.7 (Lion), but you should be able to get the app store from any OSX version.
To get Xcode, click on the Apple symbol on your Mac’s menu bar. Then select the App Store… menu item. The App Store should pop up into your screen.
Now, select the App Store > Categories and pick Developer Tools.
You should see Xcode in the Featured App Section (see the screenshot):
Click on the button that says Free to download and install Xcode. Once you have Xcode installed, you can start the application by going to Applications folder and clicking on the Xcode icon.