Mobile+App+Development

A mobile Application is a software ran on a mobile unit (tablet, smart phone, MP3 player...) with the intent to entertain, educate, and facilitate life. Everyone has heard the term that there is an app for everything. Although this might seem true we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. People are beginning to understand the potential for mobile apps and are jumping on board. By mid-January 2010, three billion apps have been downloaded from Apple’s app store alone. And that's only Apple! The number of apps and app downloads are staggering.

Developer Help
Getting in this every expanding and limitless industry just takes a good idea and of course some money if you don’t have software coding knowledge. If you do, then to develop an app on the IOS network you will want to download Xcode. You will have to make an apple account and register to be on the Iphone developer team. If you are interested in the Android market then you will download a software called eclipse. This is ran by Java network. It does not take a take a software engineer to make your idea a reality. Outsourcing your idea to a developer does not mean there is no work to be done. First off, on average, an on shore app developer will cost about $80-$150 an hour and on off shore developer will cost about $30-$50. Some developers also offer a fixed bid option. This means that there will be one cost for the finale product. Things like language barriers and time zone differences involved in communication is what makes the on and off shore prices different. Anyone can find developers on sites like craigslist, elance, and github. To make sure the developer makes everything perfectly you are going to want to make a blue print of every screen and have descriptions of every button function. You are also going to want it to say the font and coloring schemes. Manage your developers every day. See what they are working on, get screen shops of. Their progress and check their schedule daily. It is also a good idea to get a bill every day.

What Makes a Good App
The most important thing is to make sure you have a good idea and a good plan for each and every aspect involved in the app. A good app has a single function. This means it does one thing and does is great. For example the flashlight or weather app is a simple to use and people love it. You also want to have minimal clicks for the app. The less navigation through pages someone has to do the happier they will be. The customer user interface should be highly polished with vivid coloring and font that works with the page. App users also like to use gestures like pinch to zoom or swipe to switch pages. This builds a relationship between the app and the user. Different styles involve dashboard interface, activity feeds, and tool bar.

Money
There are a few ways to make money in the app world. In order to put an app in the apple app store you will need to buy a subscription. This will be a once a year payment of $100. The Android app store is supported by Amazon. After it is available to the public you can sell the app to a company all together and let them do what they want with it. If you wanted to keep control and ownership of the app then another option would be to set a freemium model. This means you put out a light or pro version. The light version would be free and have less fetchers but have add support. The pro version would cost money and have no ads. Some add companies do a cost per click method where every time the add is clicked then the developer will receive money.