Firstly some background.
After submitting my 3rd iPhone Application to the app store last year, I realized something.
WHY. AM. I. Paying iPhone Developers thousands of dollars to make an app for me? Sure its great that the kid who was picked on back in high school for being a geek and teased for having 4 inch thick glasses is now making thousands of dollars.
But.
I love DIY. And really and truly getting someone to do it for me takes the fun out of it. though at the same time I wanted an easy method to learning the code.
So I started searching online, as one does and since then I’ve made 3 iPhone apps and counting.
Now its time to finally dispel the myths.
Here are the 4 things you should know about making an iPhone application yourself compared to hiring a developer to do it for you:
1. Lower start Up Costs.
Simply put if you pay a developer it can be anywhere from around $1000-$200,000…
Assuming the app developer costs you $4,000 and you sell that app on the app store for 99cents it’ll take you, around 4,000 sales to break even
Now if you make the application yourself not only do you not have the shell out FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS as start up costs but also 4,000 sales you’ve got $4,000 in your pocket.
(In the following link from StackOverflow you’ll see developers for apps such as Twitterrific, claiming they charge $150 an hour, some say they have made up to $200,000 in total for one app. stackoverflow.com/questions/209170/how-much-does-it-cost-to-develop-an-iphone-application )
2. Its Easier Than you Think.
X-Code is the development toolkit for making iPhone apps and there are tons of guides on the internet for beginners on developing iPhone apps.
3. You Don’t have to Design The GUI (Graphic User Interface).
Its the code making that makes hiring developers so expensive. The graphical side on the other hand is much cheaper.
So you can then design the code and then hire a graphics designer which is FAR cheaper than hiring coder. Or use the abundance of free and paid iPhone GUI elements on the web.
4. It’ll make you Rich.
Learning the code (Objective-C) is like learning a new language expect that unlike learning French, you can make $ from learning X-Code.
There’s actually three ways:
a) App Store Sells Revenue.
b) start a iPhone App Development company yourself and make Apps for Clients.
c) get quick jobs on sites like Dice.
Can’t be bothered starting up an iPhone Application Development business? you can always make a quick buck from short or long jobs on sites like ODesk.com or Dice.com