smart phone app development

betonit

Hi,
Has anyone any experience here of getting a app developed? or know of anyone who does it. I did the google search but pretty much a vast set of results. I just want to know if anyone had first hand experience of getting one done and how did they get on, thanks

happyeveryday

hi betonit,
Just finishing getting an App for the iPhone developed. App development is a massive area. I'd firstly recommend doing research with the platforms you hope to develop for. A few days will give you a better understanding of what you'll require and what you'll need to emphasis to your developer.
PM if you want more info.

aqquua

I was also looking for a developer for an iphone app. I found one through boards.ie. very good price. if interested please PM me i can give details.

Gekko

can I ask what it cost you guys to get your app developed?

PM me if you like...I might be interested in getting one developed for a non profit organisation

unklerosco

Can you guys post prices etc on the threads so everyone can see them... Would be a great help

betonit

can ye share the info (experience & costs) on the thread and open it up for discussion thanks.

gags89

hey guys , work for apple so heres just some loose information on apps!


costs approx 300 to publish it but varies depending on the size of the app

you keep 70% of the profits on downloads, if its free you hire out advertising space!

http://www.ehow.com/how_5068810_publish-app-store.html


if your looking for someone to develop an app, they have to do it through xcode, an apple programming tool. students, who do computer science can help you do it real cheap there are loads of graduates out of work at the minute who would do it for alot cheaper than any company out there. Myself and a friend developed one as a college project! (didnt publish it just built it and presented it)

After you have made your app, its just all about marketing! eg downloadable from your website(saves to itunes) , emailing customers etc etc!

yop

Thanks for that. Have 12 years as a developer but just bought an iPhone.

Can anyone confirm that I need a MAC to develop on that I can't do it on a windows PC.

Any good resources out there?

Thanks in advance

betonit

yop wrote: »

Can anyone confirm that I need a MAC to develop on that I can't do it on a windows PC.

looking at the ehow link above it looks like you need mac to develop iphone apps

gags89 wrote: »

hey guys , work for apple so heres just some loose information on apps!


costs approx 300 to publish it but varies depending on the size of the app

you keep 70% of the profits on downloads, if its free you hire out advertising space!

http://www.ehow.com/how_5068810_publish-app-store.html


if your looking for someone to develop an app, they have to do it through xcode, an apple programming tool. students, who do computer science can help you do it real cheap there are loads of graduates out of work at the minute who would do it for alot cheaper than any company out there. Myself and a friend developed one as a college project! (didnt publish it just built it and presented it)

After you have made your app, its just all about marketing! eg downloadable from your website(saves to itunes) , emailing customers etc etc!

great info thanks. So I assume it needs to be then re-developed for other smart phones on different platforms?

On the free apps. Do apple get revenue from the adds that appear on the app and the idea is that you use the free app to promote your business or is that revenue also shared?

Id need a website that can be viewed on mobile devices and can be downloaded as an app.

aqquua

I was looking to develop an iphone app for a secondary school in Dublin South where I am a part of the technical dept. I have contacted few companies here in Dublin and advertised here on boards. Lastly got this guy from Dublin whose price is comparatively good (one tenth of the highest quote I got and one third of the lowest I got). Due to the confidentiality of the tender I can’t say the figure in public (pm sent to those who have asked). It’s not a complex app. Simple to read from RSS feed and XML. Their price includes all graphics and posting to itunes.

I have another iphone app in mind apart from work, so if you guys find any good value developers please pm me.

gags89

betonit wrote: »

looking at the ehow link above it looks like you need mac to develop iphone apps



great info thanks. So I assume it needs to be then re-developed for other smart phones on different platforms?

On the free apps. Do apple get revenue from the adds that appear on the app and the idea is that you use the free app to promote your business or is that revenue also shared?

Id need a website that can be viewed on mobile devices and can be downloaded as an app.

yep xcode is a mac based programme so you need a mac to build any app for the iphone.

Not sure about the other smartphones be be honest, they are all more than likely built pc based anyways. Nokia OVI stores arent even compatible with MACs and googles android phone just do a quick search to find out!


apple vet all applications too , so they have the last word on whether its published or not depending on their own rules (eg no hardcore porno!)

for free apps, i'm not too sure its more than likely a share of advertising revenue as again or they may charge you per download like a couple of cent or whatever! the minimum charge for a paid for app is 79c so the least apple get from it is 24cent so be prepared to pay apple and then charge your advertising rates accordingly.

apps have gone from 100,000 to 150,000 is the last 9 months, they also account for a decent slice of apples income now and is growing so shop around for developers and look for work they've done before. As I said before, students are all being taught these latest methods to use their skills so if its a simple app, they build it (for way cheaper!) and you just market it! I'd be telling you to send me on a brief as I'd be happy to do it for you but im escaping the country for the summer! The colleges have their on forums on boards.ie just post up and see what type of reaction you get!

also if you just want your app to be basically your website, on the iphone you can bookmark your website to your homescreen so it appears like an 'app' but really your just jumping onto safari's webpage of it, could be something to consider just getting people to do too!

Komplett: JJ

Hi folks,

We're hoping to start a series of articles for komplettblog.ie on apps that originate in Ireland - if any of ye feel you have an app that's worth a profile just PM me and we can give it a push over on the blog.

jj

Evil Phil

@gags89 - We had a discussion on the Development forum last year with regards to iPhone app dev work done on a pc. There is a way to hack pc hardware so it can run OSX. My argument was that it would invalidate the agreement with Apple and the App store but was poo-pooed! *sniffle*

I still reckon this is the case though, would I be correct?

<shamless plug>
BTW folks we have a Situations Vacant sticky on the Dev forum where you can put such requests as this.
</shamless plug>

gags89

chances are if apple found out that the app was written on a pc they'd be pretty pissed as it gives pcs their operating systems that they pride themselves on!

Im not sure exactly on the security of application if it was found to be developed on a p.c its not really my area! to be safe though just borrow a mates macbook!

gags89

alllllllllllso, if anybody (outside the b2b dealing) is interested, theres a 10-15% discount you can get on the apple products (macbooks, imacs, office for mac, i-work etc)

Dit.ie and search 'apple' , your 'supposed' to be a student staff of dit.ie but they tech dept has left it open to everyone..so its access to dit apple student store!

PM if anyone has any questions atall!

Eoin

Bear in mind that you might not need an application that needs to be installed on a user's iPhone. You can create websites specifically for the iPhone that look identical to standard iPhone applications. You won't have access to some of the iPhone functionality (geolocation, accelerometer etc), but that might not be required.

betonit

eoin wrote: »

Bear in mind that you might not need an application that needs to be installed on a user's iPhone. You can create websites specifically for the iPhone that look identical to standard iPhone applications. You won't have access to some of the iPhone functionality (geolocation, accelerometer etc), but that might not be required.

I thought about that. I was thinking you could jut have a website designed for mobile devices but id need the geo location functionality. But then i was on a site the other day and it said you're in limerick but thats probably from the ip address or identifying where the provider is some how. Id need to pinpoint the location so an app is probably required.

MackPaddy

As an iPhone developer,the whole debate of webapps vs native mobile apps comes up the whole time.
I think as a general rule of thumb,if your app doesn't require GPS,offline data access,camera,multimedia and sound/graphics,then a web app might be the way to go.Mobile internet is still expensive/patchy in ireland,so that needs to be considered too(although I will admit im biased towards native apps that can be run offline
That being said,Nokias Web Runtime Kit (WRT) is a solid platform (based on html,css,javascript etc) with the bonus of being able to access the device's GPS module,and limited data storage.However these widgets,wont run on iPhone without porting.

Interesting too,to hear that there is such a wide range of development charges,I wonder if there are any sites where average dev costs can be found?

betonit

good progam on cnbc at the mo "planet of the apps".

roc_racer

MackPaddy wrote: »

A
That being said,Nokias Web Runtime Kit (WRT) is a solid platform (based on html,css,javascript etc) with the bonus of being able to access the device's GPS module,and limited data storage.However these widgets,wont run on iPhone without porting

Interesting how the industry touts widgets as being the unifying platform for mobile devices yet on closer inspection they turn out to be as fragmented as native device OSs. So far we have Nokia WRT widgets, Nokia Widsets (deprecated), Opera Mobile widgets, Opera mini widgets (real soon now), W3C widgets, JIL widgets, a handful of proprietary formats and of course all the existing desktop formats.

The real hardship tho is in the proliferation of the Javascript APIs to access device functions - Nokia WRT APIs, Opera Mobile APIs, OMTP BONDI, W3C APIs, JIL APIs etc etc... while it is possible to port from one widget packagaing and configuration format relatively easily, it is much harder to port the JS code, unless you have deliberately abstracted it from the beginning...

Its a crying shame, because the concept of a widget - a small, well defined and standardised piece of web based functionality - strikes a real cord with most operators I've spoken too...