There is a lot of buzz about independent iphone developers who have made between $100,000 to $500,000 by simply creating their first iPhone application and putting it up for sale on the online Apple Store.
Steve Demeter made a simple puzzle game called Trism, and in 2 months he earned $250,000. Last December the app called iFart became the number one app on the App Store. It stayed on the top and raked in $9200 each day in profit after Apple’s cut. Then, Ethan Nicholas, developer of the now famous iShoot game, earns $21,000 per day selling his iPhone app. Ethan quit his day job to work full time on the iPhone and he did not even know how to write Objective-C code before he made iShoot.
These are just some of the stories that are causing a lot of buzz, and people have quit their day jobs to cash in on the opportunity.
The guys who create things like this know its a “fad” with a steep bell curve. They can easily revive it every 10 to 15 years to milk it further. Lets not take credit away from them for thinking outside the box. Who would’ve thought of iPhone Apps like iFart, iSteam, Ocarina, iBeer, Koi Pond, Moron test, iFight, etc ? These are simple Apps that the creators have made for bite sized entertainment and a quick (million) bucks. They recognize the opportunity (iphone platform + micro-transaction ability) and are selling stuff for 99cents and making a killing doing so.
The good news is that the party is NOT over. There is still plenty of room for innovation and you are still seeing individual and small studious making a killing creating and marketing what you term above as “stupid”.
There is a LOT of money to be made IF you do this the RIGHT way. Like in all businesses / ventures .. you need to get it right. That is the secret.
So, i’m going to share a few pointers. Firstly, its very important to have a free version of your app along with the paid version (keep it at 99 cents). You must follow this pricing pattern for fad type of products, but not if you are making a hgh utility product like a Astronomy Star Map.
You are not late to the party on the app store, but there are many people already there who know what is working. So, you need to play your cards right or you will get frustrated and have to walk out of the game. Spend a lot of time seeing the apps on the store. There are a LOT of them. DONT copy or make twists of what exists. Come up with a truly UNIQUE name. Ofcourse you need to have a UNIQUE game concept / gameplay too (if you are making a game). If you are making an App – there’s so much you can do.
About buying a Mac for development … no you do NOT need to buy one. If you sign up at EDUmobile.ORG classes – you get remote access to Mac time. Also, there’s an easy way to create the emulator on a dual core. Just look around . I wont tell 🙂
If you want to eventually self-publish your iPhone app via the Appstore – then you need the official SDK and acceptance by the folks at Mac and it costs $100. You will need to buy a real Mac to sign your app and publish it when you are ready. Alternatively, go for a co-publishing deal with the guys at EDUmobile.ORG and you get to keep 80% of the revenues coming in 🙂 not bad. No hassle.
Finally, again i must repeat – there is $$$ to be made – but you need to go about it in a clever manner and the folks at EDUmobile will give you plenty of tips once you graduate, and also access to a private forum to discuss things that are working with other developers like yourself. Ofcourse, if you want to start earning immediately – you can bid to win the large number of mushrooming iPhone project listings on sites like Elance, oDesk and RentACoder. When I checked recently there were over 25 iPhone projects being posted per day on Elance and oDesk, individually!
Now that I have your attention – here’s a small scoop on EDUmobile iPhone Development Tutorials
If you are read to take the plunge into learning iPhone Programming, check out the Online iPhone Training Program offered by EDUmobile.ORG. They got Videos, PDF, Worksheets and One-on-One sessions / help with your own tutor. It’ll cost you around $200 over 10 to 12 weeks. The course is for noobs.
Inside The iPhone Programming Training You Will …
… Master iPhone Development via a fun and easy to learn system
… Learn step-by-step via Online Video Tutorials, PDFs and Worksheets
… Get direct guidance and live One-on-One Support from our Tutors
… Take Weekly Exercises that are then reviewed and graded for you
… Have Tutors chart and monitor your progress on a regular basis
… Learn from the comfort of your home, at the time of your convenience
… Have remote access to a Mac, that is offered to you, if needed
… Work on a live commercial project as part of your final project delivery
… Get certification for the full tenure of the course
Here’s What You Get with iPhone Development Tutorials …
[1] Online Video Training – Once a Week. Delivered via broadband or DVD / CD via postal mail.
[2] One-on-One Interactive Online Support – Get 24 hour access by posting your issues and get help from our expert tutors quickly.
[3] Weekly PDFs and Worksheets – Read material and practice real problems and assignments as you go along.
[4] Live Industrial Project – One to two Live projects, with a choice to distribute the developed properties through various channels, and earn money.
[5] 24 x 7 Forum Access – Come to the members only online forum to meet other developers and discuss ideas and coding issues.
[6] EDUmobile Certification – Get a Certificate at the end of the course from EDUmobile – a recognized entity in the wireless industry.
[7] Access The Source Code Repository – Access and download over 100 valuable Source Code snippets that you can use freely in any of your projects for life.
[8] DVD & CD by mail – At the end of the course, on request, we will send you all the content including bonus materials by postal mail.
[9] Optional Remote Mac Access – If you do not own a Mac, you can remotely access a Mac from your PC. Get 50 hours of free access initially and request additional hours, if required.
What You Will Learn In The iPhone Tutorials at EDUmobile
Xcode and Interface Builder: Xcode is the latest IDE from Apple and is used to create native applications for Mac OS and iPhone. Interface builder is used to create interfaces and used them directly in used your application. You’ll learn how to use both of them to create state of the art applications from scratch.
Intro to Objective-C: Objective-C is the object-oriented programming language used by Apple for all its development and you will have to learn it to write iPhone applications. We will teach you all important concepts you need to know to program for iPhone. This course assumes negligible knowledge of objective c and will deal in: classes, objects, properties, message sending, memory management, the Foundation classes, and so on.
Cocoa Touch: It is an API for building software programs to run on the iPhone and iPod Touch from Apple Inc. Cocoa Touch provides an abstraction layer of the iPhone OS, which is the operating system for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Cocoa Touch is based on the Cocoa API toolset for building software programs for Mac OS X computers. You will learn the important aspects of cocoa touch programming to conceive and develop innovative applications for it.
View Controllers: View controllers are the hub of the MVC design. You’ll learn how to create controller outlets, write actions, and wire them up to the user interface in NIB files.
Tab bar controllers: You’ll learn how to use navigation and tab bar controllers to improve the user experience. Various applications can be created using tab bar controllers and is must for iPhone programming.
Table Views: You’ll learn how to use data source to organize tables, insert and delete table data, and navigate between tables using navigation controllers or even a tab controller.
Keyboard Input: The virtual keyboard is unique to the iPhone and it’s important that your application makes it as easy as possible to enter text. You’ll learn how to use delegates to design and handle keyboard input for an ideal user experience.
Persistence: Persistence of data is always required in any real world application. You will learn various mechanisms for storing data, archive data and use it whenever required by the application.
Programmatic Interface creation: You will learn how to create interfaces without using the interface builder. This will give a deep understanding of how the interface elements are handled at the lower level.
Custom Drawing: Core Graphics will allow you to create custom drawing and graphic elements to give that innovative touch to your application. Touch Events: Take advantage of the touch screen by learning how to handle touch events and multi-touch gestures.
Camera and Photos: Learn to access the camera and the photo book album for your applications
Accelerometer: Tap into this unique device feature to detect and adjust to motion.
Profiling and live device testing: Learn how to connect your iPhone to your mac and how to profile and transfer application to it.