5 Essential Steps to Become an iPhone Developer

Become an iPhone Developer “iShoot’s developer admits that he made about US$600,000 in a single month for his iPhone game iShoot. This allows him to quit the day job and focus on iPhone development full-time.” (Source: Wired)

“The iPhone game Trism earned the developer $250,000 in profits the first two months!” (Source: Business Insider)

“Block, the developer of the crossword puzzle application – 2 Cross, has been earning almost $2,000 per day on the application” (Source: Ars Technica)

You may read about these “iPhone developer goes rich” stories before. It’s pretty interesting, right? Probably you also thought of creating your own app and make a fortune. So, how do you get start and kick off your iPhone programming journey? Here I sum up the five essential steps you’ll need to go through to put up your app in App Store.

Step 1 - Get a Mac

Yes, you need a Mac. It’s the very basic requirement for iPhone development. To develop an iPhone app, you need to first get a Mac with Intel-based processor running on Mac OS X Leopard version (i.e. 10.5) or up. You probably grow up with MS Windows PC. If you do not have a Mac, the cheapest way is to purchase the Mac Mini, which costs US$599, and pair with the monitor of your PC. The basic model of Mac mini comes with Intel Core2 Duo 2.26GHz CPU and 2GB memory should be well enough to run the iPhone development tool smoothly. Of course, if you have more budget, go and get the new iMac with faster processing power.

Step 2 – Download the iPhone SDK

Apple has developed a suite of iPhone development tools (i.e. SDK) and released it to iPhone application developers with no cost. The SDK includes everything you need to build your iPhone app including the integrated development environment known as Xcode, interface builder, iPhone simulator, performance analyzer, code library/sample and useful documentation.

You can download the free iPhone SDK at Apple’s developer website. Before the download, you need to register an Apple account (if you don’t have one).

Step 3 – Learn Objective C and iPhone Development Environment

The first two steps are pretty straightforward. This step may take you huge amount of time to succeed especially you do not have any programming background. But if you really have passion about creating your own app, there is nothing can stop you.

Objective C is the primary programming language of iPhone app development. So, the first thing you’ll need is to grasp the language. If you do not know about Objective C or come from other programming backgrounds (e.g. C/C++ or Java), go and grab a beginner book to start studying. Here are a few books or resources you can further look into:

- Learning Objective-C on the Mac
- Programming in Objective C 2.0
- Learning Objective-C: A Primer

Other than learning the programming language, you also need to familiarize with the development environment. Beginning iPhone Development is a great book that you can begin with. You can also check out the official iPhone SDK documentation which bundles a wealth of information and samples to walk you through the development environment, as well as, how you can design & test your app with interface builder and iPhone simulator.

Tip: Stanford University also offers free lecture videos and course material for the public to study iPhone programming. To learn more about the course, check out this post.

Step 4 – Get Your Hand Dirty! Develop an iPhone app!

Like studying any kind of language, the best way to learn is to get your hand dirty. Don’t just read the programming book. Simply think of a very simple project to start with and begin to develop the iPhone app. Your first app does have to be fun or useful. Just code it, make it work and run it through the iPhone simulator. Remember that’s just the beginning, you can then further tweak your app and make it even better. Most importantly, that’s a great learning process. You can gradually pickup the language and the development environment.

Even you can’t think of any project, you can just follow the sample project in the development kit or the iPhone book you’re reading. With reference to the sample projects, make some modifications. Just remember to get your hand dirty! That’s the best way to learn programming.

And, hopefully, you’ll come up with your own iPhone app in this step.

Step 5 – Join the iPhone Developer Program and Submit your App

distribute_iphone_app Up to this point, you can only test your iPhone app on the Mac with the iPhone simulator, bundled in SDK. You do not have the right to load the app onto your iPhone and run it. If you plan to put your app up to the App Store, you’ll need to join the iPhone developer program.

The annual basic fee of the program is US$99. For corporate developer who works for a large organization with 500 or more employees and plan for developing in-house app, you can also select the iPhone develop program for enterprise, which costs US$299 annually. The signup process includes agreeing to the Apple terms and condition and signing the contract.

By joining as an official iPhone developer, Apple will send you a digital certificate that allows you to test your iPhone app on a real iPhone instead of the simulator. Okay, even you’ve tried it out on the simulator, remember to test your app thoroughly on a real iPhone. Never put up a buggy app to your user!

Tip: For student, you can join the iPhone Developer University Program for free.

When you think the app is ready for prime time, the final step is to submit it to Apple. The process involves zip your app files and uploading the files together with screenshots to Apple for approval. Usually, the approval process takes two weeks to complete and you’ll see your app appeared on App Store for download.

Share your Development Experience & Tell Us Your App

Lastly, don’t forget tell us if you have developed your own app. We’re very glad to cover your iPhone app and your development experience. Good luck and enjoy the iPhone programming journey. It should be fun and rewarding. Probably, you’re the next iPhone developer who can quit the day job and make a fortune using the iPhone.

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