How does one create an app for iPhone, HTC, etc?

**DimPrawn** · 5 October 2011, 07:31

Don't want to sound funny, but you never heard of Google either?

Google

**Churchill** · 5 October 2011, 08:06

Originally posted by quackhandle View Post

Hello there,

I have an idea for a smartphone app (and corresponding website) but have literally no idea to go about it (the app, not the website) I don't own an iPhone or HTC (Nokia C7 as company phone - no laughing now!

) but obviously I am aware of apps and all that malarky. I looked through the iphone app catalogue and couldn't see anything like my idea. So with some bench time possibly looming, I may have a go at it.

My background is VB/ASP (many moons ago) and now SQL, but I know enough about programming to get by, but how are these apps created? What language are they coded from? Yes, I am aware of googling all this and have done that but thought I'd ask on here if anyone has created any apps and even made any wonga from them? Hell, I read somewhere that kids have made money from creating successful apps.

TIA

qh

It's dead easy.

You pay me £25k plus 25% of all future profits and I'll write your app for you.

**doodab** · 5 October 2011, 08:12

For iphone, you need to buy a mac and get your hands on the SDK, which is quite easy. Native apps use objective C so you will need to learn that.

For android you can download eclipse and the android SDK and off you go. Code is written in Java. This is a good place to start: Android Developers

For windows phone, you probably have to give microsoft money, I'm not sure TBH.

**quackhandle** · 5 October 2011, 09:38

Thanks doodab, an informative answer.

qh

**Durbs** · 5 October 2011, 10:56

Originally posted by doodab View Post

For windows phone, you probably have to give microsoft money, I'm not sure TBH.

Yes, similar to Apple where you pay an annual fee of £99 or so and that pays for testing of your apps, access to dev resources and submission to the store. You may balk at the fee for Apple & MS phone development but the testing they do is quite good and the learning and doc resources within the Apple developer portal are worthwhile.

As for how easy it is to develop a cross-platform app entirely depends on the nature of the app, does it suit itself to a cross-platform HTML5 app or will you have to go native?

Learning curve for iPhone development if you have not used a Mac is very steep, takes a while to get used to their XCode development environment.

Development for WP7 is the easiest of the three big platforms but has the lowest % share at the moment.

Cant comment on Eclipse as i'm just concentrating on iPhone & WP7 for my own apps.

You dont have to pay for either iPhone or Windows Phone development until the point where you want to test against hardware and release to the stores. Both IDE's are free and they each have a software simulator where you can test the app.

For each platform you want to develop against, you WILL need your own hardware to test on as you cant rely on the simulators for production release. For iPhone, i test against iPhone 3G, iPhone 4 and iPad 1 hardware before release.

**quackhandle** · 5 October 2011, 11:14

Used a mac but very long time ago. In my head the app could easily be cross platform but in reality not sure. Again thanks for info, much appreciated. Lots to learn but might as well give it ago. An example i am looking at (but not related to my idea) is a Fantasy Football app that could be used on iPhone, HTC, Samsung, Nokia, etc. Does such an app neven exist? Easier to stick to one platform?

qh

**Churchill** · 5 October 2011, 15:36

Originally posted by quackhandle View Post

Used a mac but very long time ago. In my head the app could easily be cross platform but in reality not sure. Again thanks for info, much appreciated. Lots to learn but might as well give it ago. An example i am looking at (but not related to my idea) is a Fantasy Football app that could be used on iPhone, HTC, Samsung, Nokia, etc. Does such an app neven exist? Easier to stick to one platform?

qh

It's still easier to pay me £25k and a share of the profits.

**NickFitz** · 5 October 2011, 20:44

Originally posted by Durbs View Post

Learning curve for iPhone development if you have not used a Mac is very steep, takes a while to get used to their XCode development environment.

Development for WP7 is the easiest of the three big platforms but has the lowest % share at the moment.

Cant comment on Eclipse as i'm just concentrating on iPhone & WP7 for my own apps.

I've always been perfectly happy with XCode; never understood why people think its hard to get used to. On the other hand, I've always thought MS Visual Studio sucks hugely, so maybe it's just me.

Eclipse: I've used it as my primary IDE for years, for a number of different languages/target environments. I hate it. I still use it because of a few things it does well

Originally posted by Durbs View Post

For each platform you want to develop against, you WILL need your own hardware to test on as you cant rely on the simulators for production release. For iPhone, i test against iPhone 3G, iPhone 4 and iPad 1 hardware before release.

It's worth testing against iPad 2 or, now, iPhone 4S: the dual-core processor can make a difference under some circumstances, particularly to anything involving threading.

**Durbs** · 6 October 2011, 14:00

Originally posted by NickFitz View Post

I've always been perfectly happy with XCode; never understood why people think its hard to get used to. On the other hand, I've always thought MS Visual Studio sucks hugely, so maybe it's just me.

I'm a lot happier with it now they've integrated Interface Builder into it.

Used to hate dragging lines between different wierd floating windows, that was really alien to me. Saying that though, just as i'd got happy with the old XCode, they went and changed it!

VS.NET is a thing of beauty though!!

How does one create an app for iPhone, HTC, etc?