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Why I develop for iOS

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Re: Why I develop for iOS

#41

Post by sid0 »

conradev wrote: post #33
cageface wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking from experience, you can literally throw just about anything on the app store and it will make a couple hundred a month. That hasn't been my experience. My experience has been that once you drop off the "new & noteworthy" sales tail off pretty sharply. The app store is very competitive now.

As a 13 year old, I put my first application on the store in October 2009, and all it does is play those mosquito ringtone sounds, and I still make ~$300-400 a month. It always manages to maintain the top 50 Entertainment in some random country. EDIT: Top 50 Entertainment for iPad, Top 100 for Entertainment for iPhone. I would recommend making your app universal, even if it is just to make the app fill the screen. Th…

Am I the only one who finds this disturbing?

Re: Why I develop for iOS

#42

Post by alexobenauer »

ams6110 wrote: post #37
MrScruff wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's considerably easier (IMO) to get started in web development than in iOS development. Web development has a fairly gentle learning curve and I personally know a bunch of people that started their careers hacking in php. iOS development has a gentle learning curve if you already know C, which even some CompSci graduates don't nowadays. I don't think this was intended as a put down, it's just a fact that there are…

A Web App is more than HTML and PHP of course. There is an entire "stack" and if you're doing it all yourself you need to know something about all of it. You will probably find yourself needing to be at least somewhat proficient in: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP/Ruby/Python or similar, Apache or IIS administration, Linux/BSD/Windows administration, MySQL/Postgres/SQL Server administration, some dialect of SQL itself, et…

My last iOS app required the knowledge of Objective-C, the frameworks, HTML, CSS, & Javascript (because that's actually how you do formatted text, and javascript for event handling within that text), SQL for the local storage, PHP & MySQL for the server-side storage, etc.

I'm not saying either is harder, I think that's a fight for cats, but I did want to inform to your hunch from experience.

I think both web development and iOS development require the use of tools and languages that many don't know about at the start, as I'm sure plenty of people think, "Oh I just have to learn HTML & Javascript" and then find all of the things you've listed.

Re: Why I develop for iOS

#43

Post by bignoggins »

sid0 wrote: post #38
bignoggins wrote: post #14

Disclaimer: I'm a full time indie iphone developer. I'm an iOS developer for one reason: it is the best platform if you want to start your own business and keep writing CODE. Apple takes care of distribution, payments, marketing (via features and top lists), and some legal issues (you get a default ToC with every app). What this means in practice is that I spend roughly 80% of my time actually in the code, which is s…

you can literally throw just about anything on the app store and it will make a couple hundred a month Do you think this is healthy in the long run?

I just take this as an indicator that the barrier to entry for making $ is very low on the app store as opposed to web apps, which is my entire argument. If the long tail is generating a few hundred a month, how much do you think you can make if you actually have something good?

Re: Why I develop for iOS

#44

Post by againwiththe »

as you can tell from these posts, only a few lucky people actually can make money from the App Store. I only see one in fact... 'bignoggins'.

Anyone else have success? I know I haven't even covered the $99 subscription, so to me it's a scam.

Re: Why I develop for iOS

#45

Post by nanijoe »

bignoggins wrote: post #22
slowpoke wrote: post #12

You need to do memory management, need to work with design patterns, learn a new language, and more. While he does raise some valid points (with which I still disagree, but then again I wouldn't be caught dead on anything by Apple, so I'm biased too), this is plain and simply nonsense. Assuming someone knows neither Objective-C nor any language (including HTML) for web development, the learning curve is probably abou…

Can we all just agree that to be good at any technology, it is pretty darn hard? But I've done enterprise Java/.NET, web development,and iPhone development. If we are talking about what is easier for a beginner to pick up (some HTML/CSS/JS with something like Rails or Django backend), I would definitely recommend web development over Java/.NET/Obj-C.

..I feel a little differently. The thing that just drove me crazy when I first tried to learn web development (with rails) is that every so often, I would need to make a detour, and go learn some other technology (css, javascript, prototype, html,http etc) . Granted, that experience may have helped my learning curve for objc; But when I was learning to program for the iphone, I was up and running before I even fully realized that cocoa was different from objective c. Of course, I cringe when I look at objc code I wrote early on, but guess what? The people who purchased those apps know nothing about the underlying code.

Re: Why I develop for iOS

#46

Post by oflannabhra »

slowpoke wrote: post #12

You need to do memory management, need to work with design patterns, learn a new language, and more. While he does raise some valid points (with which I still disagree, but then again I wouldn't be caught dead on anything by Apple, so I'm biased too), this is plain and simply nonsense. Assuming someone knows neither Objective-C nor any language (including HTML) for web development, the learning curve is probably abou…

I would say iOS development is more front-loaded in the amount of things you have to learn before you can build even a simple app than it is for web development. The net amount of work might be less in the end (as you say, there are a ton of technologies to learn in web dev work), but you don't have to learn all of those at once if you want a webpage.

And I believe that was the point he was making.

Re: Why I develop for iOS

#47

Post by talmand »

aphexairlines wrote: post #19

> The iPhone and iPad are the high-end of the smartphones and tablets. I don't think that's true anymore. The iPhone is often heavily subsidized by carriers to the point of being cheaper than other smartphones -- in Japan, for example, it costs zero yen and its data plan is further subsidized to be the cheapest in the country. Also, aren't most of this year's hyped tablets (whether Android ones, or webOS, or BlackBer…

To be fair, just because something costs more doesn't necessarily make it the high end of that product niche. Design and build quality has to be factored in as well.

Re: Why I develop for iOS

#48

Post by robjohnson »

I couldn't agree more. I started programming because of the iPhone. (There's a longer story about my difficulties of going from zero-knowledge to publishing my first app, but that's for another day.)

The platform is so polished and ubiquitous, that it gives me a sense that any app I write could potentially have a significant impact on the users. Since I've begun my programming knowledge quest, I've done a tiny bit of web development, but nothing is more satisfying than opening up Xcode to start something new. The tools, frameworks, simulator, IDE, polish, feel, etc. are just so incredible.

Re: Why I develop for iOS

#49

Post by alexobenauer »

itssoobvious wrote: post #13

Money. That's your reason.

There's plenty of reasons I choose iOS, that this poster shares.

Knowing exactly what screen sizes you're developing for is huge, and there being only 1 or two can really help you make a polished UI. (For example, compare the Facebook app on android and on iPhone.) Also the culture of quality is something I enjoy.

Reducing this post to your one-liner makes some assumptions. Money will always be a big factor, yes, and if that's what you meant, then great, but those other reasons are also big reasons for developing on iOS.

Re: Why I develop for iOS

#50

Post by funkdobiest »

slowpoke wrote: post #12

You need to do memory management, need to work with design patterns, learn a new language, and more. While he does raise some valid points (with which I still disagree, but then again I wouldn't be caught dead on anything by Apple, so I'm biased too), this is plain and simply nonsense. Assuming someone knows neither Objective-C nor any language (including HTML) for web development, the learning curve is probably abou…

The cost is what is prohibitive for many developers, which is why web apps are easier. I don't have to buy a Mac to make them, and any body can use them no matter what platform. I used to write Mac applications back in the day, but all my friends and relatives who didn't use Mac OS couldn't use them, I switched to web apps and yes I lost a lot of features, but I am reaching a wider audience. Have any IOS developers tried to port their app to Android? just for the challenge.
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