Many developers killed it with iPhone apps in 2010, however 2011 is the year of the tablet.
As always, there are huge opportunities for those who get in early, and even though the iPad has been out for a year the game is just getting started.
The media is still completely obsessed with the iPad and holiday sales for the iPad 1 were through the roof. I have never seen a single product receive so much hype and essentially free press. It’s just crazy to think that 12 months ago the tablet market was created out of thin air and yet these products now dominate tech news on a daily basis.
A few days ago Apple announced their second quarter earnings and iPad 2 sales were a bit of a disappointment, not because of slow sales but because Apple can’t produce them fast enough – now thats a good problem to have!
The Blackberry Playbook was just launched and will add fuel to the fire, however the reviews are a good indication that RIM and Motorola are still a year or two behind Apple with the hardware and software. This confirms that developing for the iPad is still the place to be, at least for the next year.
A recent poll showed that even though iPad sales were high this holiday season, only 5% of adults in the US currently own a tablet computer. Think about that for a second, 95% of consumers are not yet a part of this market.
If 20% own a tablet by 2013, the market is going to quadruple in size in the next 2 years. There are not many, if any other areas of the market that I can say are going to grow that quickly with relative confidence. If the second and third year growth of the iPhone are any indication of what we will see with the iPad – those who are able to build popular apps are in for a wild ride.
So you’ve decided to jump on the iPad app bandwagon and have a killer idea. There are really three different ways to have your new app developed. Assuming you know Objective-C, you can develop the app yourself. You can outsource the work and have a freelancer develop it for you. Or you can hire a professional app development company (the most expensive of the three options). Option number three is only recommended for those with an existing service and a large budget. Below I am going to cover the first two options in a little more detail.
If you are brave enough to attempt building the application yourself you will need to register as a developer and join Apple’s iPad development program which is $99 a year. This gives you access to the iOS Dev Center and the SDK along with the interface builder, iPad simulator, guides and tutorials.
There are quite a few third party tools and frameworks that make the learning curve a bit easier and essentially allow you to create an iPad app quickly using a drag and drop interface, however the tradeoff is functionality. I don’t recommended taking this route unless you just want to create an app version of your website.
Here are some good tutorials for getting started with iPad app development:
How to prototype interactive iPad applications in 30 minutes or less using Apple Keynote – This shows you how to build a iPad app prototype with no programming knowledge what so ever. Very useful if you plan on designing the app yourself, but having it developed by someone else.
iPad Programing Tutorial – Hello World++ – How to create a very basic interactive app for the iPad.
How To Build iPad Apps With Xcode and Interface Builder – Highly recommended tutorial that will walk you through building your first iPad application, a simple calculator.
This is the most popular route for those with little to no programming knowledge. Just because you don’t know how to program doesn’t mean you can’t create a great iPad app. I know of quite a few apps that were outsourced and have become immensely popular.
If you decide to go this route, it’s VERY important that you stay on top of the development process. There are plenty of horror stories about developers in India ripping people off through oDesk and eLance, however there are a lot of precautionary measures you can take to minimize this risk.
Whenever I create a new job on oDesk I only send the job out to those with over 1000 billing hours and 4.5 / 5 stars.
oDesk allows you to choose a flat price for the project, or pay by the hour. Once the project begins, you are provided with a screenshot of the developers desktop every few minutes allowing you to make sure that they aren’t billing you while playing World of Warcraft.
For an iPad app generally it’s better to pay by the project – you don’t want to have the developer back out halfway through because they have another job that is paying them better hourly. I highly recommend offering a bonus as an incentive for meeting the deadlines and this will also help to ensure the quality of the work.
Hopefully this post inspires those who are still on the fence to jump off and make something happen. There are plenty of ways to find success in the world of apps regardless of your technical knowledge or financial situation!
Hello Kevin,
Thanks for sharing the information. We may be jumping off the fence sooner than later.
This is great information. I have been considering and discussing the whole “app” thing with my dad (his idea). This article will be very helpful information for us to add to our list of what seems like never ending reading material. (It’s a good thing I like to read)
Piano Lesson Girl
Hey Dakota,
The reading material will never stop, you just need to get out there and take action. When I first started I spent 80% of my time reading and only 20% of my time actually doing, once I realized that it needed to be the other way around I actually started to get things done and was able to find success.
Great article! In the past 5 weeks my company went from having 1 person with an iPad to 6 because of the apps you can use. For on the road events we use face time and skype to do live broadcasts and we have it connected with Dropbox so people in upper management can view footage on the go. If it explodes like this through the rest of the business world there doesn’t seem to be an end in site for the profit to be gained from developing for the iPad. I need to get a freelancer to make me an app for Eating in Bed!
One major difference in the timeline of the iPhone and iPad seems to be the corporate adoption rate. Companies were very hesitant to embrace the iPhone simply because the Blackberry was well liked at the time and known for its security – however that is a battle Apple didn’t have to fight this time around. I think the rate at which companies are supporting and utilizing the iPad internally has surprised a lot of people.
Hello from the fastlane Kev,
Funny you mention this, as I was just working on an assignment earlier in the week for a Business and Social Media class and noticed WebEx has an ipad app. I was thinking, “wow, that’s cool”
good stuff mate. sure, a lot of developpers made money with iPhone apps, this isnt a surprise.
I am impressed by the iPad tablets.