Steps To Creating Your First iPhone App

iPhone 3GS

One of the web sites I currently read with regularity is Smashing Magazine. I must say that I enjoy this site a lot and have been learning a lot of things. They recently published an article by Jen Gordon of Clever Twist. The article is entitled “How To Create Your First iPhone Application”. It lists the steps that you need in order to create your first iPhone application.

With the iPhone’s rising popularity, applications for this device are rapidly gaining market share. The great thing about the iPhone is that for the first time there’s a great mobile platform that people really want to use. I’ve been using mobile devices for a long time and I haven’t really seen a great platform that made me want to use my mobile device. In fact I think the Palm OS was the closest thing that did it for me. The sad thing is Palm’s development stagnated until recently with the introduction of the Palm Pre. We’ll see how that goes.

As of now the iPhone/iPod Touch is the mobile device to beat. So more and more people are getting interested in developing for it. I’ve read the article and here are some of the things pointed out.

A great idea is the most important aspect. No matter how good a designer or developer you are without a great idea your skills will just not be enough.

Assemble the things that you need to build the application. This goes both for the hardware and the manpower. Ask yourself, “What am I good at? What can I bring to the table?” and based on that assemble the other pieces that you need to build the application. Apart from the manpower you’ll need the tools such as a membership to the iPhone Developer Program, an iPhone or iPod touch, software such as Xcode, etc.

Learn the iPhone/iPod Touch OS and UI. There are a lot of great reads at the Apple Developer web site. This requires a membership though.

Other things that you need to do are upload it to iTunes and have your app approved and a have marketing plan to promote your app.

Like I said, the iPhone OS is a great platform that will surely become more popular in the years to come. More and more people are using it, the apps are getting better and better. So if you think you have that next great idea that you think will make for a good application get started and make it happen. Who knows, it might be your ticket to fame and fortune.

Read the complete article here.