Creating iPad Apps

Creating iPad Apps

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Creating iPad Apps

Creating iPad Apps The Rush is On! How to Create Your Own iPad App and Get it Selling Fast!

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Creating iPad Apps

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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A TIME OF GREAT OPPORTUNITY

Earlier this year, Apple unveiled a new product that took the web by storm. As most of you already know, that product was the iPad, a specialized mobile computing device built around the same successful “App Store” that drives the iPhone and iPod Touch. Users of the iPad use built-in “apps” (short for application) to perform tasks such as browsing the internet, composing documents, sending and receiving email, and so on.

The real draw for most users, however, is the availability of hundreds of thousands of specialized applications that can be acquired for free or purchased from Apple’s online “App Store”. These apps are the core of the iPhone and iPad user experience, and are as diverse as the end users they’re designed to appeal to.

Some apps help users manage their social contacts, look up restaurant reviews, or learn more about the world around them. Others are designed simply to make the iPad emit a farting noise, or create the effect of a glass of beer being chugged. They all have one key element in common, however:

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They all represent a highly lucrative opportunity for the enterprising developer.

A PRE-ESTABLISHED CUSTOMER BASE Apple’s App Store on the iPhone has proven to be an unqualified success. Since the store’s inception, the concept of the “app” has grown to overtake mobile computing, inspiring the creation of several competing devices and platforms built on the same technology.

Despite that, Apple and their devices such as the iPhone and iPad still account for the majority of smartphone and mobile computing devices sold in world. The numbers of apps available in the store has grown from just a few hundred in the beginning, to more than a quarter million unique apps that have generated more than 5 billion downloads worldwide.

What’s interesting about the iPad, however, is that it seamlessly runs all old iPhone apps. That means that it’s built to easily integrate with the pre-existing App Store that has already proven to be such a success and that attracts such a huge amount of user traffic every day.

Users who are coming to the iPad are often already familiarized with the iPhone and the App Store, which means they’re already familiar with, and excited about, the world of apps. In other words, the customer base for selling iPad apps is already in place, even though the device has only been available for a few short months.

Whereas those who developed apps early on for the iPhone had to struggle to get the content and distribution method recognized, those 6 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps

who are looking now to develop early content for the iPad will be able to enjoy a wide audience with a built in distribution method that just so happens to be one of the most popular online marketplaces in decades.

THE IMPORTANCE OF STRIKING EARLY Striking early, however, is critically important for those who hope to profit by developing for the iPad. To understand why, let’s take a look back at the evolution of the iPhone.

In the beginning, the App Store took some time to gain traction. Once it did, however, there was something of a “gold rush” to develop lucrative apps for the system. Game developers in particular were excited about the opportunity to cheaply develop games and then sell them for 10 to 20 dollars apiece (nearly all profit). Over time, however, these high prices could not sustain themselves, and users saw the overall price of apps getting lower and lower, to the point where the average price for an app is now about 99 cents.

What does this mean to the developer? Obviously, while people still make tons of money developing for the iPhone, the most profitable time to be a developer was in the early stages of the product, before the marketplace was saturated with thousands of competing apps.

Consider it this way. The people who are buying iPads are for the most part already familiar with the App system and how it works. Apps are the very reason they’re buying an iPad in the first place. Consequently, they will be excitedly looking to download and buy new apps as soon as they acquire their new toys. People will, for a period of time, actively want to be sold

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Creating iPad Apps apps. During this time, one can strike and make a name for oneself as a developer of quality apps. Moreover, with more chance of being seen early on, any submission to the App Store stands a greater chance of becoming a hit.

Therefore, the iPad developer who wants to profit from this business had better get started right away!

Fortunately, that’s exactly what this book was created to do – help you get started, and succeed, at creating and selling iPad apps. To that end, it’s divided into several sections.

First, we’ll take a look at the iPad itself from a hardware and software perspective. Once you know how the iPad works and what its limitations are, you’ll be able to brainstorm new ideas for apps that take advantage of those specifications in a unique and entertaining way.

Then, we’ll look at Apple’s review process and learn how to assemble a team, design and blueprint a project, and then carry that project through to completion with this review process in mind. With this method, you can more easily assure that your creation will be approved by Apple for inclusion in their marketplace.

After that, we’ll cover some more abstract topics such as how to market your app, different ways to generate income from your apps, and in general how to get the most out of this opportunity.

So, sit back, relax, and open your mind up to a world of exciting opportunity: the world of creating and developing apps for the Apple iPad!

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2 GETTING FAMILIAR WITH THE IPAD

The field of software development has long been rather insular, with huge barriers to entry that prevented entry to all but the most dedicated producers and most knowledgeable programmers. No longer is this the case. Apple’s mobile computing devices have become such an ubiquitous feature of the information and social networking landscape that most users already seem to have an understanding of the devices and how they function.

That said, vague ideas are not enough for the successful developer.

The developer who truly wants to maximize the potential of his or her applications will seek to find out as much about the iPad as well, to understand its design from the inside out, and to know what it’s capable of (and what it’s not capable of) from the perspective of its hardware specifications. Now, it’s not necessary to be a computer science major here. There’s no need to know what a transistor is or how a microchip works. All that’s important is knowing what the iPad has to offer, so one can make apps that take advantage of the iPad’s unique properties.

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In the following section, we’ll break down the iPad and examine several of its most unique and intriguing features. Then, based on what we’ve learned, we’ll attempt to brainstorm some concepts for apps that utilize the iPad well and provide an experience that users will want to pay for and talk about.

IPAD HARDWARE FEATURES When one first looks at the iPad, it’s like looking at a giant iPhone. In many respects, that’s exactly what it is. To be sure, the iPad doesn’t function like a standard tablet computer, and it doesn’t run a fully featured operating system the way a laptop or netbook does. It is designed and built almost exclusively for the ability to download and use apps. With this in mind, let’s look at some of the features offered by this novel device. 

Touch Screen The first thing that users tend to notice is the iPad’s giant touch screen. This screen dominates the entire front face of the device, and at first glance is the only means of interacting with the machine. There are four buttons on the exterior shell of the iPad but for the most part, users are invited to interact by means of the touch screen. Apps are run by tapping icons on the screen, pages are scrolled by sliding one’s finger across an appropriate icon or section of the screen. This intuitive user interface is one of Apple’s biggest selling points, and great care should be paid to preserving its simplicity and function. It’s worth noting that the screen displays a graphical resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels, and can display old iPhone apps in either their original native resolution or scaled up to occupy the larger iPad screen.

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Changing Orientation The iPad comes equipped with built-in sensors that can determine the way you’re holding the device, either in a landscape or portrait orientation, and then display the on-screen content accordingly. In other words, suppose you were looking at a widescreen movie but holding the device vertically. You would have a lot of black space at the top and bottom of the picture in order to preserve the aspect ratio of the film. Turn the device on its side however, and it’s like watching a wide screen television – the image expands to fill the screen. Likewise, when reading content, one might prefer to user the portrait orientation, so that page shape and size is more similar to traditional printed media. Overall, there are four orientations through which the iPad can be viewed; portrait left and right, and landscape left and right. One of the four buttons on the surface of the device is intended to lock this functionality, so that’s always a possibility. Keep this changing orientation in mind when planning your apps.



WiFi and 3G Connectivity Naturally, the iPad has the ability to connect to the internet. This is how one browses the web, uses email, or most importantly, accesses and downloads apps. Users of the iPad can connect through basic WiFi connectivity in the same way that laptop users would, but those with the slightly more costly 3G model also have the option of connecting to the internet via the 3G standard. This will allow for wider coverage for most users, as it allows the iPad to connect most anywhere that you could use your mobile phone. Apps have the ability to call online content, so this is an important feature to keep in mind.



Speakers and Microphone Because the iPad is built around the enjoyment of apps and media, it had to have a sound system in order to develop a true multimedia experience. While there’s an option to connect other speakers or

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Creating iPad Apps headphones through a jack on the edge of the device, the iPad also comes equipped with two integrated speakers and a built-in microphone. While at first this might not seem so unique, bear in mind all the possibilities that exist for using the speakers and microphone to aurally interact with users of your app. 

Light Sensors One of the most common problems for devices like the iPad and laptops in general is that their screens can sometimes be hard to view depending on the lighting conditions that one finds oneself in. The iPad, however, has taken steps to overcome this drawback by including a built-in light sensor that automatically adjusts for the user’s ambient light and then alters the screen’s brightness and contrast accordingly.

While this is convenient, it also represents intriguing opportunities for app developers.

Having covered the more unique features, we should also take a quick peek under the hood to determine the basic hardware specifications for the iPad. It uses a 1GHz processor, and sports 256mb of RAM. Hard drive sizes vary with the price tag and come in 16, 32, and 64 gig models. While those individuals used to working with high powered personal computers might find those numbers a bit on the low side, bear in mind that the iPad is a different creature entirely, and doesn’t have to deal with the typical bloat and lag that accompanies a fullyfeatured operating system. As such, it can utilize its resources more efficiently. Be aware, however, of these hard-coded limitations when planning your app.

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POTENTIAL APP IDEAS Before you can go anywhere with your app, you’ll have to have an idea. Ultimately, that’s where it all begins, and the quality of your finished product, as well as its financial success, is most dependent upon the quality of this original idea. So take your time brainstorming, and try to figure out something that really takes advantage of the unique properties of the iPad. Here are just a few basic suggestions to get you started: Think in terms of what makes the iPad unique.

For example, the iPad has a built-in light sensor. Why not create a game wherein you fight vampires and you have to use real world light sources in order to beat them? Or how about an app where you tend a virtual garden and your plants grow in accordance with the amount of “sunlight” they receive?

The iPad has a large screen whereupon elements can be controlled by touch for an intuitive user experience. Why not a marginalia app where you can load up documents and scribble notes in the margins, or a “notepad” that actually lets you write notes on the surface of your screen as you would with a pen? Maybe you could create a simple novelty app where you use your fingertip as shears to prune a bonsai tree?

The iPad is motion-sensitive, just like the iPhone. Remember those games where you used to have to tilt a board to roll a little metal ball around obstacles and get it to drop into a hole? You could code

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something similar on the iPad. You could create an app that mimics an Etch-a-Sketch. You could turn the iPad screen into sand and allow users to rake “Zen garden” patterns into the grains (double-tap to place a rock).

These are just some simple suggestions thought up after but a few moments reflection on the unique capabilities of the iPad. Any one of them, if properly presented and marketed, could be a success for any iPad developer. At the same time, they represent just a fraction of the possibilities that are out there for the truly courageous, adventurous, and creative developer to take advantage of.

Before you go any further in your journey as a developer, try the following exercise: take some time alone and situate yourself somewhere comfortable, whether it’s in your study in your favorite chair, in the shower at home, or out hiking on a well-trod trail through the wonders of nature. Whatever gets your creative juices flowing.

Now, ask yourself, what can you do to take advantage of these novel revolutions in computer interface technology?

At this point in time, it’s important just to let your imagination roam free and easy, without restriction or criticism. Treat any idea that comes to you as if it has the potential to make a million dollars, and give it a fair shake before moving on to the next. The more often you do this, the more ideas you’re going to have, and soon one of them will jump out at you and you’ll know it’s “the one”.

Now it’s time to get serious.

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3 PLANNING YOUR APPLICATION

Even the simplest applications for the iPhone or iPad are hiding a very complex underlying structure. Programming of any sort is usually a very organized and systematic affair, so it’s vital that you start your excursion into app development off with a lot of thorough and in-depth planning. Remember that a mistake made at the planning stage might take nothing more than an eraser to fix, whereas a mistake not caught until the production stage can be much more costly and disruptive.

PLANNING FOR THE REVIEW PROCESS The reason planning is so important for typical programmers is because programs are complex multi-layered entities built up from a collection of functions, built around a usable interface. It’s very easy for something to go wrong when writing one, and taking care of bugs is a huge part of the effort involved with creating any program.

Because the program will eventually undergo such an intense level of scrutiny, programmers generally like to get a better feel for the underlying structure of a program ahead of time by drafting a sound plan.

That said, apps for the iPad have to undergo yet another type of scrutiny altogether. In addition to your bug testing, all apps created for 16 ……………………………

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the iPad (or iPhone for that matter) must be submitted to a review process overseen by Apple. During this process, Apple will review your submission and make a determination, on the basis of predetermined criteria, whether or not your app is suitable for sale in their app store.

If so, you’re good to go. If not, you’ll need to fix whatever problems they find before you can start selling any copies of your app. Given that this is the case, it pays to keep the review process in mind from the very beginning. Know that, before you can get anywhere, you have to please the people who are reviewing your app.

HOW LONG TO MAKE YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION?

Because the review process is handled in-house by Apple, there are aspects of it that they’ve chosen not to make public knowledge. For the most part, one can infer some general guidelines that the reviewers are obviously going by, such as “no pornography”, but the actual specific details of the process can be something of a mystery.

What is known, however, is that Apple reviews apps not just for content, but also for quality. They want submitted apps to meet a certain standard of professional quality before they’ll include it in the App Store. This means that in addition to being bug-free and functional, your app should have a polished and professional look about it, with clean text that’s free from any errors. Basically, you want to make a good impression.

It was recently reported, however, that Apple receives an average of 8500 app submissions each and every week, and that a total of two employees oversee the entire approval process.

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Yikes. Simple math tells us that that’s 4250 apps that each person has to review in a week’s time. All things considered, they’re going to be looking at your app for less than six minutes. That’s really not a lot of time at all to make a good first impression on a reviewer. That’s why it pays to give a lot of thought early on to exactly who is going to be doing the “creating” part of creating your app.

DIY VS OUTSOURCING One of the primary concerns that people have when they resolve to make money by creating iPad apps is how they’ll actually be doing the creating. To be fair, it does involve some computer programming, which can be difficult for someone who has no experience in the field at all. If you aren’t familiar with APIs, libraries, functions, objectoriented programming as a whole, then you would have a fairly steep learning curve ahead of you as you attempt to undertake the creation of an app. By the same token, if you don’t have a lot of experience creating computer graphics or sound files, you’ll also have some obstacles to overcome.

Take comfort, though. Even if you can’t ever see yourself becoming an artist or a computer programmer, this is still something that you can make money at, because you will always have the option of enlisting other people to do that kind of work for you, via outsourcing.

Whatever choice you make in the end, deciding what work needs to be done, and who will be doing it, is the very first step of planning a successful app.

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Creating iPad Apps PROGRAMMING

Programming experience would definitely be a plus should you decide that you want to try your hand at programming your iPad app yourself.

If you’ve worked with C or C++ before, then you’ll probably have some degree of familiarity with object oriented programming languages, which is what iPad apps are built with. If, however, you haven’t done any programming since the old days of BASIC and other linear languages, then you may well have to consider your experience obsolete. Object oriented programming is an entirely different beast from linear programming, and mastery over one would not necessarily translate to mastery over the other.

If you have no real experience in programming, then you could always undertake to learn the discipline. It may seem daunting, but others have done it before, and there’s no

reason you can’t do the

same provided that you’re committed

and patient enough. There

are countless resources available for

learning to program in C,

C++, and Objective-C, the languages

that are used in Apple’s

iPhone Software Development Kit.

Apple even has a host of

tutorials and instructive documents

available on their website,

in the developer’s section.

If you’re interested, head over to the developers section at http://developers.apple.com and register, it’s totally free. Then you can have access to the aforementioned help files, as well as the SDK itself. There’s no harm in downloading it, reading through a few of the tutorials and seeing if things start to click. Who knows, you may have

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had the talent for programming all these years, and never knew about it until now. Later on, we’ll cover in detail how to register there for free and access these helpful tools.

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GRAPHIC AND SOUND DESIGN

Programming is only one aspect of app development, however. Take a look at any successful app and you’ll see that it’s composed of images and often sounds. All the little logos and graphics, the pointers and icons that you see all over the screen when you use an app – consider that someone had to design those and create the graphics files themselves in a program like Photoshop. Depending upon the scope of your app, you may well end up needing a significant number of graphics in order to get the job done.

Sound is a big part of apps, as well. In fact, some of the most popular iPhone apps of all time, such as iFart, are based entirely around the ability of the iPhone and iPad to generate sound. Plus, people enjoy sound because it gives your app a more immersive experience. If there’s a little sound as you click a button, or when a new window pops up, one feels more immediately connected to the experience.

Sound helps draw your audience in.

There are plenty of tools out there for creating your own graphics and sound, many of which can be downloaded for free. On the graphics side of things, GIMP is a useful program which many artists swear by.

It replicates many of the higher-end functions of professional programs like Adobe Photoshop, but it remains free and open source. With it, you can produce professional looking graphics like those you see in the iPhone’s most popular apps. Audacity is but one example of a free program that you can use to create sound files for use in your app.

Apple’s OS-X has useful software as well such as Paintbrush and

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Garage Band. Feel free to check these or others like them out and see what you can come up with.

Bear in mind this caveat, however: people demand good graphics and sound.

Imagine that you’ve decided to make a game for the iPad. Imagine that your game involves a green-haired motorcyclist in a high speed chase along the highway at night. How will such a game look and feel?

You could present the app with very basic graphics, a simplistic rendering of a motorcycle, a street, and other cars, and so on. The end result probably wouldn’t be very engaging, however. In that case, you’d have to rely entirely upon the game play itself to be the attraction. Unfortunately, since people most often preview apps by looking at screenshots, you may never have a chance for the game itself to make a good impression.

Instead of this basic graphical representation, however, imagine that you were able to make the game with high quality graphics that draw the user in. Imagine abundant details such as wind whipping through the character’s green hair, plumes of exhaust as they accelerate, the glow of neon from surrounding buildings and street lights. Imagine an immersive sound experience with the roars of engines, the whirr of pursuing helicopters, and so on. This is what people pay to see and play! With high quality graphics and sound, you can cash in on the blockbuster mentality and your app will have a much better chance of competing against others like it.

The real point here is that if you’re not an artist, sound engineer, or musician, you might want to think twice about handling this side of the

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business yourself. Even if you can save money by doing the programming, graphics and sound yourself, ask yourself if you’re really the one for the job. If you think someone else could do it better than you, it might be time to consider bringing in someone else.

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HIRING FREELANCERS

The internet is abundant with sites like elance.com which allow for users of the site to offer freelance work or apply for freelance work that others have listed. Such sites are godsends for individuals who have an idea that they think will make money, but which requires the services of a programmer, designer, or artist.

One thing you might want to do is log on to one of these sites, head to the sections that deal with programming or software development, and take a look around. Occasionally, there are even sections that deal specifically with iPhone and iPad app development. Try to find listed jobs that are similar to what you’re planning on making and see what the winning bids are. This will give you some sense of how much you should be willing to pay in order to hire a competent and professional freelance programmer, artist, or musician.

These sites aren’t the only way to acquire help, however. You can often go on places like craigslist and post about what you want to accomplish and what kind of freelancer you’re looking for. State your terms, and you should get replies from any party interested in working with you.

Of course, if you’re going to be hiring a freelancer to cover part of the work on your app, you’re going to need to pay them. Most of the better freelancers work for a one-time fee and generally require half of the total fee upfront. If you have a budget that you can put towards the development of your app, then that’s great – you should be able to

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afford decent help. Just remember that every penny you have to invest is a penny less profit, though.

If you really need to conserve money, then you can always solicit help from freelancers in exchange for a share of future profits. The more established freelancers will usually be unwilling to work under such terms, but you might well attract the attention of an up and coming person who is just as talented and looking for a way to get their name and work out there.

You can more easily attract talented people to projects with these kinds of payment terms if you have experience under your belt as a project manager or director, or can show some detailed plan that gives the freelancer some indication that you actually intend to finish the product one day and profit off of it. In the freelancing community, endless stories circulate about clients who wanted work done in exchange for future profits, only to never actually get around to profiting off the items in question. It’s just the same as if you were attempting to get a loan to start up a business; the bank would be more inclined to invest in you if you had a solid plan and seemed like a professional. So too will it be easier for you to convince talented freelancers to invest in your product if you seem like you have it together.

The one drawback to this is that if your app becomes very popular, you might later wish you had simply made the investment of a onetime fee instead of promising away your future profits which turned out to be larger than you’d anticipated. There’s a gamble either way you go.

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In the end, you must make a decision. Is the money you invest in your freelancers going to be worth the results they deliver? Will their efforts make your product more salable and attractive to downloaders? If so, then it may be a worthwhile investment to make, and if that’s the case, don’t be afraid to go with it. There are plenty of successful app developers out there who employ freelance programmers and artists and adopt a more managerial role themselves. Once you determine which setup you’ll want to use, then it’s time to blueprint your app.

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BLUEPRINTING YOUR APP If you recall, we were discussing earlier how an app is a complex creation with many different layers that require careful planning and forethought in order for them to work together correctly in a way that will pass Apple’s review, attract a lot of attention, and generate interest in the end user. In a way, it’s like building a house.

Behind the walls of a house, you have a complex system of wires and pipes running around, fueling the tasks that we perform on a daily basis. Every time we flip a switch to use some appliance or turn on a light or flush a toilet, we take the result for granted, but those results just wouldn’t be possible without the electrical and plumbing work that lies hidden underneath the surface of the house. This is the same way that programming works. It lies under the surface of the app and makes the right thing happen when the user needs it to happen. If it’s successful, the user will never notice it at all.

If the programming is the wiring and pipes behind the walls, then what are the walls in our analogy? Just as the walls obscure the inner workings of a house and

provide a template for attractive

design and decoration, the

user interface and graphical

presentation of your app

hide the programming and

present the user a

seamless experience that is also

hopefully nice to look at

and listen to.

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Moreover, you need to layout the walls of the house with a pleasing design such that the rooms flow naturally into one another, and the house becomes a joy to live and work in. So too must your app be carefully planned so that one can navigate through it logically and intuitively.

The point is that a lot goes into building a house. If you had to build one, you’d leave as little up to chance as possible, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t just show up to the build site, whip out some boards and hammers and start nailing things to other things. If you did, your end result would likely be a disaster. Instead, you’d spend a lot of time carefully creating a blueprint by which you could ensure that each step of the way, your house is being constructed correctly, and with the overall desired result in mind at all times. Likewise, you don’t want to build your app in a random or chaotic way. You want to be organized and methodical, so that your app runs well and seamlessly, is beautiful to look at, fun to use, and logically constructed. Therefore, your app needs to be blueprinted. Be certain you don’t overlook this crucial step.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONCEPT

The first step in creating a detailed and thorough blueprint for your app is to come up with a concept for what the app is going to be in the first place.

Is it going to be a game? If so, what kind of game? A simple puzzle game that can be picked up and played casually? A more in-depth adventure game that the player returns to many times before successfully winning it? Will your app instead be a quirky novelty?

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Maybe it’s only a few screens and a few sound effects like iFart, or maybe it’s based around a simple graphical trick like the infamous “beer” app. Maybe it’s something like the popular PhotoKaster, a social networking app that allows users to take, send, and vote on photographs.

There are many routes one could take here, but it’s important to make a decision early on and stick to it. Decide what your app is going to be and what it isn’t going to be. There’s nothing worse than an app that can’t decide if it’s a game or a social networking client or a messenger or something in between. A strong basic concept is central to a strong blueprint.

It may give you some good ideas to browse around Apple’s App Store.

Here, you can look at apps rated by popularity or download count, and see which apps are attracting the most attention. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to create something that plays on similar interests, but fills a void or addresses a need that hasn’t been gotten to by competitors yet. If you can be the first to strike on an original idea in a fertile marketplace like the App Store, then your success is nearly assured.

So, now that you know you need a good concept, it’s worth asking the question: what makes a good concept?

Naturally, a good concept is something that will attract people’s attention. It needs to be immediately engaging, and have some type of hook that will draw the user’s attention. At the same time, however, it needs to have lasting value. People enjoy apps that they can use time and time again. Even in “simple” apps like iFart, there are a huge variety of options and sound effects available so that people are

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inclined to use the app repeatedly. You can assure this by making your app concept as addictive as possible. Try and find a hook that will make the user want to fire up your app again and again, something that will make them want to keep using or playing it, and to show it to other people. Addiction and repeated-use is at the very core of the viral mentality, and that’s how apps succeed.

While it may sound funny, a good way to ensure that you’ve got an enticing idea for an app is to base your concept on the things that you know are attractive to people. Ironically enough, the classic list of “seven deadly sins” provides a great starting point. The list asserts that the cardinal sins are gluttony, lust, wrath, envy, pride, sloth, and greed. As cynical as it may sound, these are the kinds of things that people eagerly pursue on a daily basis because these “sins” are directly linked with the basic desires that drive humanity as a species.

If you don’t believe this, just stop and think for a few moments about how much this list really reveals about some of the most popular types of apps. 

Gluttony People love to eat. They love to see food, think about food, write about food, talk about food, and more. That’s why apps based around food and eating are always popular. There are apps that search for restaurants near the user based on the iPad’s built in GPS function. There are apps that allow the user to write reviews of restaurants in their area, upload them, and then the reviews that others have written. There are apps that manage recipes, aid in the process of cooking, or keep track of calories. Whatever the case, these types of apps remain popular.

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Lust People love sex. The old adage still holds true after all these decades that sex sells. It always will. That’s why there are so many apps built around this drive. Consider the number of popular websites and apps there are out there based around the premise of connecting people together for the sake of dating. There are countless, and if you have the right gimmick, there’s always room for one more. Besides that, there are apps that give daily love advice, games centered around dating and marriage, and much more. We’re not talking about pornography here. Apple has some pretty stringent content guidelines that prohibit that sort of thing. Still, that doesn’t mean that you can’t capitalize upon the natural human desire to be with other people and to experience romance. It’s a market that won’t be going away anytime soon.



Wrath People today have a lot of built-up frustration and stress that they’re looking to release. That’s why apps that help release tension are always incredibly popular. Whether it’s a game where you flick a photo of your boss in the ear by thumping the screen of your iPad, making animated tears run

from his eyes, or a game where you

shoot hordes of

Nazis, zombies, or Nazi zombies,

people love to let off

steam. In fact, one of the most

popular apps in recent

years was the “bubble wrap”

app, which allowed the user to

use iPhone’s touch screen to

“pop” a sheet of digital bubble wrap, complete with accompanying sound and image. This idea was original and funny, but notice that at its heart, it too is built around this premise of playing to innate human desires. 

Envy People naturally envy what others have. Thanks to the internet,

31 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps however, they can now have those things too. The eBay app is certainly one of the most popular around for its

ability to put people in touch with the

things that they want

to buy and acquire. Consider the

opportunities for an

app built around such concepts. You

could let people

catalogue their shopping trips or

compare prices across

multiple stores or sellers. You could let

people maintain a

consistent “storefront” of simple items

they wanted to sell,

kind of like an ongoing eBay auction

wherein you can “friend” certain people who sell or give away the kinds of things that you’re interested in. Envy is another fertile path to creating an addicting app concept. 

Pride Most people like themselves. A lot. You can capitalize upon this by creating apps that appeal to people’s ego or interest in themselves. Consider popular apps and sites like HotOrNot are. Here,

how users

upload photos of themselves that are voted

“hot” or

“not” by the other users of the app. In other

popular

apps, people make profiles about themselves and connect with other people.

People

download apps to show off their book or DVD collections, or to brag about their video game achievements. If you can come up with an app concept that appeals to people’s innate sense of pride, then you’ll have a winner on your hands. 

Sloth People as a rule don’t like to work or expend energy. If you can come up with a way to make something easier for them, they’ll naturally be interested in buying it. Consider all the apps out there that purport to make one’s life easier by managing one’s schedule or to-do list, by

32 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps automatically paying one’s bills, by reminding one about important events with alerts so they don’t have to, or by helping people to relax.

An app that

helps you organize your music collection might

fall into this

category, for example. You just have to be creative. Anything that claims to help the end user increase their productivity while expending less effort has an instant audience.



Greed

Yes, it’s also true that people are generally greedy. They like to make money and think about the money they’re making. That’s why apps that help people manage their money, make and track investments, create and follow a budget, and so on, are so endlessly popular. Everyone wants to make more money and if you can create the impression that your app will reliably help them do so, then you’ll have no trouble finding people willing to invest time or money in your app. A year or so ago, one app developer created an iPhone app called “I am Rich” which was nothing but an image of a glistening red jewel. It cost just under one thousand dollars and had no purpose other than showing off the fact that the user obviously must have had a thousand

33 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps dollars to just throw away on sheer extravagance. Apple pulled the app for undisclosed reasons after about twenty-four hours... but during just that short amount of time, it sold eight copies, netting its creator about 5 or 6 thousand dollars profit. Don’t underestimate human greed!

In the end, it of course bears mentioning that we’re not advocating that you go out and create apps that will make people want to behave in “immoral” ways. Far from it. This is just a helpful way to think about what kinds of concepts really appeal to people on a deep and engaging level. With this in mind, you should be able to come up with an attractive concept that has no trouble finding an audience.

Another key point to consider when creating a concept for your app is that the concept should be easy to explain. There will come a time when you need to write a description that will appear in the app store and explain to interested customers what exactly it is that your app does and why they should download it. When that time comes, how are you going to explain that your app is meant to keep track of the time, remind you when you need new eggs and milk, organize your CDs and is also a game about camels? While it’s okay to have multiple features, this just goes back to what we were talking about earlier – a strong concept is a simple concept.

A good idea isn’t a good idea because it’s complex or extravagant, it’s simply the right idea in the right place at the right time. It can and should be as simple as its possible for it to be. Creating anything more complex than that is just asking for trouble. So, if you can easily explain your concept in one or two sentences max, it’s a good indication that you have just the right balance of simplicity and 34 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps

complexity in your concept. If you can’t, you may want to go back to the drawing board and pare down or expand your concept until it does meet the “easy to describe” qualification.

One last thing to think about at this stage is that your concept needs an excellent name. Today’s tendency is for catchy and personable names that reflect a sense of wit and respect the user’s intelligence over names that simply indicate what the product does. Think about it.

Do people use “Search Engine” or do they use “Google”? Do they use “Browser” or do they use “Explorer”, “Firefox”, “Chrome”, or “Safari”? A good app name is quirky and memorable and suggests at the tone of the product without being too simplistic and straightforward. Google, for example, suggests the immensity of the internet (a googol is a one followed by one million zeroes) and the search engine’s ability to organize it into something useful and manageable. “Safari” and “Explorer” suggest taking the user on a guided tour through a wilderness, analogous to the unknown wilds of cyberspace and the browsers that take people there.

One great indicator that you’ve come up with a good name is that it lends itself to a verb form. For instance, people don’t even say that they “searched on the internet” for something anymore, they say they’ve “Googled” it.

“Hey, who won between the Yankees and Red Sox today?”

“I dunno, let me Google it.”

“How are our stocks doing?”

“Let me Google it.”

35 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps “What time is the movie starting?”

“Let me Google it.”

As you can see, Google has become more than a company or a product name, it’s become a verb in itself, a part of our everyday linguistic parlance that nearly everyone recognizes by this point. If the name of your product lends itself to a verb-form, then you’ll know you’re on to something.

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A FOUNDATION ON PAPER

Once you’ve got your idea, you’re ready to start actually producing something. Most people who’ve got a killer concept for an app are eager to get some kind of prototype up and running, but you should be careful about jumping into the actual production phase of app development too quickly. The pitfalls are simply too numerous. There are too many different aspects of the design to leave any number of them up to chance.

At the same time, however, you should take great care that you not get bogged down in the planning phases and never make the leap to production.

A fine balance is needed. Generally, it is recommended that you go no further than getting a basic coded prototype up and running, something that will show the basic features of your app, but without any frills or embellishments.

For example, if your app is supposed to produce help people manage their finances, you might just produce a basic menu screen that shows the different options you want to work in later, without trying to fit in the slick navigation or fancy-looking buttons that you may be envisioning. In time, you’ll probably totally change this early prototype, but it’s still useful, motivationally speaking, to get something functioning at this early stage, just to whet your appetite.

Once that’s handled though, you really can’t overlook the process of working out your ideas on paper.

The first thing you’ll want to do is spend some time brainstorming features that your app needs in order to compete. At this point in the game, many people make the sad mistake of trying to cram their apps

37 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps

full of a huge number of features or bells and whistles. It’s not about quantity, though.

Can iFart manage your stock portfolio? Can it suggest a recipe that you can cook out of the leftover mushrooms and coffee creamer in your refrigerator? By no means. And yet it is successful. That’s because the few features it does have are novel and unique, and are built to appeal to the end user. So don’t frustrate yourself trying to fit everything imaginable into this first app of yours. Keep things simple and elegant, and you’ll find it a lot easier to actually bring your app from the drawing board into fruition. Just remember: when brainstorming features, go for the one or two features that will blow your users away, rather than a ton of things that have been done before.

Of course, at some point, you’ll have to review the feasibility of the features you’ve come up with. This is a good time to talk to the programmer and make sure that the two of you are on the same page before moving forward.

You’ll also want to produce some early sketches of how you envision the final interface looking. This is all important, and isn’t just a matter of taste; there are good iPad app layouts and bad iPad app layouts, and the layout can be the difference between a successful app and one that gets ignored. If you have no ideas at all for how you want the end product to look, you may want to just leave this phase entirely up to the visual designer. Nevertheless, if you do so, you should insist that he or she produce these types of sketches for you to review at an early stage of the game.

38 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps

When sketching, measure out an area on a piece of paper the same size as the screen of the iPad (or iPhone) and then fill in the space with your ideas. Make sure that you have room for all the elements that you’ll need (dashboards, buttons, and so on), and that the most prominent buttons that will be used are easy to find and access.

Another critical part of planning is being sure that you understand the structure and flow of your app. Most apps have a number of “pages” which are linked to one another by the interaction of the end user.

Let’s take a look at a basic example.

Suppose you have an app that tells you your daily horoscope. This app allows for multiple profiles, so that different people who share the same iPad can all get their own personalized horoscopes whenever they run the app. So, you know you’ll need two key things: a way to select which profile is to be used, and a way to display horoscope data.

This calls for at least two separate “screens” or “pages”. But wait.

What about new users? There should be a way to create new profiles as well, and to assign pertinent astrological data to those profiles. So, you’d have to have a screen for new user creation as well.

After giving it some thought, you might well decide that when you first fire up your app, you want it to briefly display a title screen, and then move into a “main menu” from which users can create a new profile, or access a profile they’ve already saved. If they choose to create a new profile, they’re taken to a screen where they input data, and then returned to the main menu (where their new profile will now show up in the list). If they choose to go with an already existent profile, they’re taken to a page that displays their horoscope for the day, and

39 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps

ends with an option to either end the app or take the user back to the main menu.

Now, this is a very simple concept for an app. Most apps you make might be a little more complex than this, and to be certain, you could even build a horoscope app that incorporates a lot more features than this. But for the sake of example, notice how even a concept this “simple” on the surface becomes very complex when we start looking at the design in terms of pages and how those pages are linked to one another.

To help us understand how our program is going to work, it’s helpful to design a flow chart that replicates the navigational process that the end user will ultimately undertake. A flow chart for our astrological app may look something like this: Title Screen

->

Main

->

Menu

New User

->

Creation Screen

Return to Main Menu

V Choose

->

Display Daily

->

Option to

Existing

Horoscope for

Quit or

User

Chosen User

Return to Main Menu

As you can see, even this simple app is going to require a fairly complex system of links in order for the user to be able to navigate through it intuitively. Imagine how much more complex such a design would become with the addition of just one or two other features. At

40 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps

this point, there’s just simply no way to keep the intricacies of the design in your head; you need to get some kind of design down on paper. Without taking the time to carefully design this aspect of your app, you could easily end up just overlooking one or two navigational links that would then cripple your project. Suppose that after creating a new user, you forgot to include a return to the main menu? A simple mistake, but that would mean that the first time anybody users your app, they would get hung up in limbo after making a profile and have to manually kill the app and restart it in order to access the desired horoscope information. This kind of thing doesn’t bode well for an app’s reputation, and to be frank, your design probably wouldn’t pass Apple’s review process in the first place.

So, save yourself time and money by taking out the old pen and paper and doing some planning before you jump right in to coding your app.

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Creating iPad Apps

YOUR MONETIZATION STRATEGY

Another key issue that you’re going to have to resolve at this early planning stage is how you’re going to monetize your app. After all, the whole reason you want to create iPad apps in the first place is because you hope to profit off of them, right? Well, the bad news is that it’s not so simple as just making an app and sitting back and letting the paychecks roll in. The good news is that it’s not too much more difficult than that either. So let’s get started.

The first thing to understand is that there are several different ways you could go about monetizing your app, and not all of them involve just charging a fee to download and install it. In fact, that archaic choice may be one of the most difficult ways to profit off of creating an iPad app, as we’ll soon see.

One important thing to bear in mind before we move forward, however, is that whatever monetization strategy you choose, you have to be sure that it meshes with the expectation of your co-workers. If you’re going it alone as a solo developer, then you don’t really have to worry about this. But if, like the majority of developers, you’ve hired help in the form of freelancers to program your app, design the graphics and sound, or write appealing text, you’ve obviously got to worry about paying them.

Now, most people who go the freelance route choose to pay their freelancers a lump sum upfront for the work. This way they can avoid having to give up a substantial portion of profits if the app gets truly big. BY the same token, most freelancers seem to prefer it this way as

42 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps

well, because then they’re guaranteed compensation for their labor, regardless of whether or not the app is successful. If this is the case, then all you need to be concerned about is whether or not your app will generate enough money to cover your expenses (what you paid your freelancers). If you paid them out of pocket, then maybe you’ll willing to take the loss just to give this iPad thing a run and see what comes of it. That’s your call. Just be sure that you give it some consideration and actively make a decision about it.

There are some cases, however, wherein people hire on labor on the agreement that the parties doing that labor will receive some percentage of expected future profits. There can be real advantages to doing things this way. The first is obviously that you don’t have to pay anything upfront, and if your app flops, you won’t be out nearly as much as if you’d pay them upfront. The other is that freelancers in this situation might well be more motivated to help produce a financially and commercially viable end product than they would be if they got paid either way. The caveat here is that if your app doesn’t make any money, you’ll probably have a hard time getting those same freelancers interested in working with you again.

At any rate, once you’ve decided how your freelancers are getting paid, it’s time to think about yourself. How are you going to get paid?

More to the point, how is your iPad app going to make you money? As mentioned above, there are many strategies that you can undertake.

The first thing to decide is whether you want to charge for your app or not. At first, this might seem like a no brainer. Who would want to give something away for free if they could get paid instead? But it’s really not that simple. The iPhone App Store is huge at this point, and with

43 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps

the iPad being compatible with those apps, that means there’s a great deal of competition going on. Suppose you decided to charge $3 dollars for your nifty horoscope app. Seems reasonable enough. But what about the end user who goes to the App Store, searches for apps related to horoscopes, and then finds your $3 app and half a dozen free ones. You can bet that he or she is naturally going to gravitate towards the free options instead of the one that charges.

Of course, you can get away with charging upfront for your app if you have a truly unique product that’s not going to face any real competition from the rest of the App Store. That said, it would have to be some idea, and you need to be honest with yourself regarding how original your concept really is.

Okay, you might ask, if you’re not going to charge any money for downloading your app from the App Store, how are you going to profit from it at all? Surely you didn’t go through the entire process of getting together freelancers and designing a project just to give it away for free, right?

Imagine that in the above example, the user decided to download a competing free horoscope app instead of yours. The user is delighted with the app, plays around with it a while, and reads some horoscopes for themselves and their friends. Occasionally, however, they see a notification from the app that they’re using the “free version”, and that by upgrading to the “premium version”, they’ll be able to access a much greater number of features, such as lucky numbers, daily Tarot card readings, and much more. They get excited. How do they upgrade to the premium version, they wonder. The answer: it costs $4.

The user pays it, and is glad to have done so.

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Creating iPad Apps

But what just happened here? $4 is one dollar MORE than the cost of your app, and yet this person chose it instead. This is called the “freemium” business model, and since 2006 it has become the most popular monetization strategy by far among internet startups, according to the New York Times. How it works is pretty simple. You give a basic product away for free, but then charge money in order to access additional content, such as a “premium edition” of the app.

The freemium business model can be successfully adapted to just about any kind of app. As you can see in the example above, it meshes nicely with our hypothetical horoscope app. But suppose that you just designed a great game about tank drivers? Well, you could give away the basic game for free, but then charge for access to a premium version with extra levels, different tanks and drivers, or access to new features, like an online scoreboard that ranks all the users of your game across the world. The opportunities are endless; you just have to be resourceful.

The freemium business model can be a great way to monetize in a market that’s already somewhat saturated. While the iPad marketplace itself will be fresh upon the launch of the system, bear in mind that the iPhone’s popularity virtually guarantees that it will soon become as swamped as the existing iPhone App Store. You can be prepared for that ahead of time by adopting a non-traditional monetization strategy like freemium.

That said, freemium isn’t the only way to go about making money on apps. Far from it. Another method to think about is that of subscription based services. Different types of sites on the internet, typically those that offer new content on a consistent basis, have found success by

45 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps

charging users a subscription fee. In these instances, the user is assigned a profile to log in to the site with, and this profile is automatically billed a charge for subscribing to the content of the site, on some sort of consistent basis, whether it’s a day, week, month, or year. Some key examples of successful subscription based sites are the Wall Street Journal, and, it has to be mentioned, pornography websites.

The only problem with subscription based sales is that your app has to consistently generate new content that will continue to convince the end user that your product is worth whatever the recurring cost is to them. Imagine a fully featured RSS reader that automatically collates updates from all of a user’s favorite sites and then delivers them in one centralized, easy to read page. Such a device would consistently deliver value to the end users, and as a result, he or she might well be able to justify spending .99 cents a month to subscribe to such an app.

If a horoscope app were particularly good, and offered some kind of value added service, then it too might be able to successfully implement the subscription strategy of monetization.

For the most part, it should be stated that novelty and gimmick based apps are far less likely to succeed at using the subscription strategy.

Subscriptions demand something with a greater perceived value, and are best reserved for service related apps.

Another way to consider profiting from your app is charging the user nothing at all and instead supporting your endeavor with ads. Ad revenue is one of the most popular ways to get paid on the internet, and to be sure, it has funded some highly lucrative ventures. Ever been to Google? Of course you have. Did you pay for it? It’s free! But

46 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps

is it really? Every time you go to Google, ads are being displayed along the right hand side of the page, and at the very top of the search results in the form of “sponsored” links. In a very rudimentary and basic sense, this is how Google makes money. It’s also how YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, and the majority of the most popular sites on the internet make money. Clearly, it must work.

How it works is usually that you register your app with some kind of ad service such as Ad Whirl, which places demographically appropriate advertisements in your app. Suppose that you gave your horoscope app away for free, but then when people used it, they saw ads for related services (shops selling magic crystals, psychic services, and so on) on each of the screens. Each time those ads were viewed by end users, you would profit by a few cents. Over time, at least in theory, it all adds up.

Advertising is a popular way to get paid on the internet, because it fits well into the expectation that internet users have of getting information for free. Let’s face it – there are thousands of places online where you could get your horoscope read for free. But anytime someone chooses your app to get their horoscope, you get paid for allowing ads to run during the experience. On the whole, users don’t mind ads and have even come to expect them to play some part in free services. The appeal of ad based monetization is obvious. You get to attach a lucrative price point (free) to your app, thus ensuring greater interest from your potential audience, but the rate at which you get paid is still directly proportional to how well your product “sells”. The more interest you can drum up in your app, the more people see the ads you’re displaying, and the more money you make.

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Creating iPad Apps

This is effectively no different from charging for your app in the first place, but makes it easier to generate initial interest because you’re not charging people any money.

One thing to keep in mind with advertisements, however, is that they take up space. This means you have to decide early on if you’re going to use them, and if so, get in touch with Ad Whirl or Ad Sense, or whichever provider you’re going to use. Find out what size the ads they run are, and then plan to have a space of that size on your app screens dedicated to running the apps. If you were to decide at the end stages of development that you wanted to go with apps, you’d have to redo all of your layouts in order to fit the ads in, so it definitely pays to make this decision early on and then plan for it accordingly.

In the end, there are many ways that you could potentially profit from creating iPad apps. Getting the most profit out of a venture like this involves a little bit of experimentation and intuition; you have to judge which monetization strategy is best for the particular product you want to create, taking a pragmatic approach to profit. There’s no one strategy that will work for all apps, so the real trick is to pay attention to the particular circumstances under which you happen to be developing.

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YOUR DISTRIBUTION AND MAINTENANCE STRATEGY

One thing that many app developers don’t count on, especially during the planning stages, is that their app may well require some kind of distribution strategy, as well as a plan to consistently maintain the app for the sake of customer service, providing needed updates, fixing bugs, and so on. As a general rule, distribution and maintenance strategies of this sort will require a great deal of attention in the planning stages if they are to be successful. Even if your app itself is stored and distributed through the App Store, most successful apps are backed up by a website of some sort, and many of the more complex apps, like those that offer social networking functions, require the use of external databases that it would be your responsibility to maintain.

First things first, you’ll want some kind of host server. This is just a basic place to store information on the web in order to have a convenient way for you and your team to share documents with one another. Ultimately, you’ll probably place your website here as well. It’s an important thing to consider, but you have many options. Don’t rush right out at first and purchase the most expensive web hosting plan you can find. You might instead use a free service like wikidot or Google Documents in order to share and work on your basic design.

Provided that you eventually need a website in order to support your project, you could probably get away with just a simple and inexpensive web hosting plan with a low yearly rate (more on this later). The important thing for now is just to decide which route you’ll take.

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Creating iPad Apps

Next, you’ll need to determine whether or not your app requires any kind of storage server. If so, then you run into some more complex issues. Even for something as simple as our hypothetical horoscope app, we’re dealing with a situation wherein your app is going to have to continuously get new horoscope information from somewhere. You would probably upload a file with horoscope data for the entire month to your storage server, and then the app would access that data in order to communicate it to the end user. By contrast, something like iFart or iBeer would have no storage needs. At this stage of the game, consult with your programmer about whether or not your concept will require a storage server, and if so, start determining how you’ll provide for one.

Databases are another thing to consider. This is similar to the need for a storage server, but is a bit more complex. Generally, this will only be an issue if you’re trying to create the kind of app where the user will be able to manage some kind of editable profile, such as in a social networking app. Storing tons of profiles, as well as information about their links to one another, requires something called a “database”, which is ultimately just a specifically formatted collection of information. Still, if you need one for your project, you need to know that now, so that you can plan to find a storage server that offers this type of functionality.

If you’re storing data for use in your application, then you also need to have a plan in place to backup and restore that data. For example, if you are running a large database of user profiles, you don’t want to run the risk of all those profiles being lost in a hard drive crash. If that happened, your app would die overnight, and all of its users would

50 ……………………………

Creating iPad Apps

vanish. With a backup system in place, you could simply restore the profiles and continue on like business as usual with very minimal interruption to your service. Again, this isn’t something that every app will need, but it’s something that you’re going to need to carefully consider, and now, during the planning stage, is the time to do it.

Maintaining your app is something else to consider. Many developers think that it’s sufficient to write an app, release it, and then sit back and collect profits. While some designs will allow for this, the creator who really wants to maximize his or her profit potential will pay attention to how their app is being used. Imagine, for instance, that you created an app where people can post and view items for sale by other users within a localized area, something like a craigslist. The app may well prove to be a success, but over time you notice that the users are using the localized service to promote events and meet-ups more than they’re using it to sell items. In this case, you have the prime opportunity to update your app to focus more on this aspect of the service. In other words, the users will decide how your app is used, so don’t close the book too early, or you’ll miss out on some golden opportunities.

That said, the biggest part of a maintenance strategy is determining how you’ll release updates to your app. If you hired a freelancer and paid an upfront rate for the delivery of the release app, then what happens if you need to go back later and add some new feature or make a change? Would you be able to do it yourself? If not, how would you go about getting it done? Hire another freelancer? Try to get the same one back? Perhaps at some point it would become more efficient simply to keep a programmer on some kind of payroll. There are no

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easy answers to questions like these, and you’ll always need to make the best call for your unique circumstances. The important thing is that you’re thinking about them from the beginning, while we’re still planning.

WORKING WITH A TEAM

It’s also critical that you decide at this stage of the game how your team is going to work together. All too often, “teams” of people get together to work on some project like an app, but without any sense of hierarchy or organization. There’s no “leader”, so there’s no accountability, and nothing ever gets done. Everyone involved is confused about what they’re supposed to be doing. Take steps now to ensure that this doesn’t happen to you.

Teambuilding is a skill that will serve you well in all areas of business, and if you haven’t spent a lot of time developing it before, now is a golden opportunity to do so. As you put your team together, follow the principles of specialization. If you’re hired a freelance programmer, let he or she do the programming. While you might be the director and have final say in what goes into the product, make sure you don’t impede the programmer’s ability to get work done. Everyone needs some measure of autonomy in order to do their best work. Likewise, don’t try to do the artist’s job for him or her. If you’ve decided to adopt a managerial role in your app development, then be a manager.

Choose the right people for the right jobs, and then let them do those jobs.

With autonomy, however, comes responsibility. As manager, it’s your job to clearly communicate to each member of the team what is 52 ……………………………

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expected of him or her, what criteria will be used to determine success, and what the penalties are for not meeting those criteria. In other words, make sure that each person on the team knows what he or she is accountable for, that way there’s some kind of objective parameter in place for what areas of the project need improvement, and whose responsibility it is to take care of those improvements.

Additionally, be sure that you don’t breed resentment by letting one team member get away with practices you wouldn’t let the others get away with. Practice solid accountability at all times.

Communication, of course, is a vital part of managing a team. Be sure that you have reliable ways to contact each member of your team individually, as well as some way to interact with all of them at the same time. This can be through email, phone calls, face to face meetings, or any method you wish. Just be sure that the lines of communication are clear and open.

As when working with any large scale project, you want to establish some kind of timeline early on. This should identify key dates by which you want to hit certain benchmarks in the development of the app, and you should have solid plans in place to meet those benchmarks. If not, you need to know who is accountable for the failure, and how you will make up for it. All aspects of teambuilding work together to ensure success – a well thought out timeline is indispensible for defining exactly what that success is.

Lastly, give some thought to contracts. While you may be reluctant to take things to that level over a “simple” app, you never know when things can get messy, legally speaking. What if your app goes on to make millions of dollars? Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable knowing

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you had contracts in place that specified who received what share of profits? Not having contracts is just inviting trouble to appear later on down the line. So while it may be a bit of an expense up front, it pays to insist that your freelancers or anyone involved in the development of the app sign contracts that attest to their responsibilities and compensation.

A BLUEPRINT CHECKLIST

So, now you’ve reached the end of the blueprinting and planning phase of your app development. Congratulations; now that the foundation is laid, it’s time to move on to the actual creation of your app. In the meantime, however, here’s a handy checklist that you might want to consult to ensure that your blueprint is complete.

 Is your concept an addictive, based on human needs/wants, and easy to describe in just one or two sentences?  Do you have a catchy name for your app that can easily be “verbed”?  Have you sketched out how the app will look, generally speaking?  Do you have a flowchart showing how the different parts of the app connect to one another?  Do you know how you’ll be monetizing your app?  Do you know how you’re going to be paying your freelancers, if any?  Do you know where you’ll be hosting or storing data essential to your app’s success?

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Creating iPad Apps  Do you have clear standards of success and accountability in place for all of your team members?  Do you have a timeline for completion of the app that is reasonable and attainable?  Only when you can answer yes to all of these questions is it time to move on.

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4 CREATING YOUR APPLICATION

So your blueprint is finished, your checklist is completed, and you’re finally ready to begin the construction of your app. The information in this chapter will help you to do exactly that, but it will be most useful to you if you’ve decided to do the programming work yourself. If you’re going with a freelancer, it’s still good to familiarize yourself with the following concepts just so you can communicate with them more effectively, but you needn’t worry if you don’t understand every little thing you see about classes, objects, functions, or routines.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE The following is a rundown of all the tools, both hardware and software, that you’ll need to create your iPad app. If you aren’t a Mac person already, which is to say, if you don’t own an Apple computer, an iPhone, or an iPad, you may well find that the initial investment is a bit high. It’s true that Apple’s hardware runs a bit higher than does the Intel platform. Nevertheless, if you’re committed to the production and sale of iPad apps, then you can think of this as an investment in the future. If nothing else, you’ll have some undeniably cool new toys to play with.

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The first thing you need is a Mac. If you’re running a machine with Windows, you’re out of luck, generally speaking. This is because an iPad app can only be written with a piece of software known as the iOS SDK, which is distributed through Apple’s website (and comes bundled with the latest version of their OS-X operating system). Naturally, Apple has ensured that their SDK only runs on Mac operating systems. Why would they want to support their competitors?

The good news is that buying a Mac is a relatively uncomplicated process. Unlike the vast world of Intel-based PCs, you’ve got a relatively limited number of options, and you can rest assured that any machine currently being sold by Apple will be more than sufficient to run the SDK and let you develop just about any app you can dream up.

In addition, you’ll also need an iPad. This might seem a bit superfluous at first, because the SDK comes with an iPhone/iPad simulator on 57 ……………………………

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which you can test whether or not your app works as intended, but this simulation is ultimately only that. Apple strongly recommends that developers test their apps on a real iPhone or iPad before submitting them for review, and there’s a very good reason – the real thing often exposes flaws or bugs that the simulator will not. While there’s a slim possibility that you could get away with developing an iPad app without ever touching a real iPad, it’s a risk that you don’t want to take.

There’s nothing more frustrating than getting to the review stage and then getting rejected and having your progress halted while you wait around to purchase the iPad, learn to use it, and so on. Save yourself some time and grief.

You’re probably also going to want an iPhone. While it’s not strictly necessary, Apple is strongly favoring the production of “universal apps” that will run on any of their three flagship products, the iPad, the iPhone, and the iPod Touch. With the iPhone in hand, you’ll be able to more accurately confirm the universality of your app, and avoid nasty surprises during the review process.

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SOFTWARE

When it comes to software, most of what you need can be freely acquired. If you’re running the latest version of OS-X, it already comes bundled with the iOS SDK, which means you can get started developing right away. Otherwise, you’ll need to download the SDK from the Apple website. The SDK is actually a bundle of programs that you use in conjunction with one another to build up your App. There are three main programs in the SDK. The first two are Interface Builder and Cocoa Touch. Interface Builder is essentially a drag and drop utility that lets you build user interfaces out of customizable components. It lets you control the appearance of the user interface in your app from where the buttons are positioned to how they look, what they say, the way they behave when clicked, and much more.

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There are a number of tutorials available for it on the Apple website.

Cocoa Touch is the framework which governs the iPhone and iPad’s touch screen system. It lets you control the sensitivity of elements in your user interface, and control what happens when the screen is touched, as well as allow for complex gestures. While significant, the importance of these programs, on the whole, is much less than that of the other major piece of the SDK: Xcode.

Xcode is the name given to the main piece of software that you (or your programmer) will be using to develop apps for the iPad or iPhone.

It's important that you don't just jump right in, but instead take some time to get to know your way around the program. Programming at the best of times can require a lot of focus and concentration, so be sure that you aren't also having to struggle against the software itself -- get to know Xcode. One of the best ways to do this is by logging into the developer's section of the Apple website and checking out the tutorial titled "Your First iOS Application" in the iOS Reference Library.

Let's go ahead and briefly summarize how you'll be getting started, though. First, fire up Xcode, and click on "File" then "New Project" in order to create a new project. Choose to create a Window-Based Application.

A menu will pop up asking you which product you're developing for.

You can choose iPad, but you might want to go ahead and pick the Universal App function. This will help you to ensure that your device will run on both the iPhone and the iPad, and in all configurations, thus netting you the widest possible audience in the App Store.

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Then, choose where you'll be saving your product, give it a name, and let's get started.

The basic structure of an iPad app is that the SDK's preeminent function, UIApplicationMain calls up the Info.plist file associated with your given application. This file in turn provides access to your app's "nib file", or a collection of the classes and objects associated with your app. This nib file will have the extension .xib, and by doubleclicking on the existing on in Xcode, it will be opened up in Interface Builder, which allows you to see what all it contains.

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Generally speaking, you'll begin with four "items" inside the nib file.

These include the following: A proxy object titled "File's Owner". This is in fact the UIApplication function that exists in all apps by default.

Next is an object called First Responder. This is used in event handling.

A delegate associated with your app, which will be named "(YourAppName) Delegate".

Lastly, you'll see a window, which has a white background by default.

This window is the "Main" window automatically summoned whenever the UIApplicationMain is invoked. In other words, it's the first thing your application will display upon running.

As you might guess, nothing much is happening here at the moment.

You can click the "Build and Go" button at the top of Xcode to run a simulation of your app, but for the time being, all you'll get is a white screen. We have to add more classes, objects, and write the functions to perform the tasks we want.

Naturally, of course, this is a very complex topic, especially as you move further into the more advanced functions of the iPad. Since even a summary of the following steps would presuppose knowledge of what your particular app is going to look like and do, as well as require an intense knowledge of C, C++, and Objective-C, such an in-depth discussion is not really within the scope of this book. Apple's own tutorials on the matter, however, are exceedingly thorough and well illustrated, and by carefully following along with them, one should be

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able to pick up on the rudimentary concepts of writing an app in just a short time.

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REGISTERING Before you can develop any iPad applications, you’ll need to acquire the aforementioned programs. In order to do that, you’ll have to go to the Developer’s section of the Apple website, and register as a developer. Note that there are several options available. One of them costs about $100 and while you’ll have to take that option before you can publish to the App Store, you can get your feet wet, download the tools you need, and fully develop an application, by completing the free registration.

To register as an Apple Developer, simply navigate to the following URL: http://developer.apple.com/programs/register This is a direct link to the free registration, as most of the prominent links from the Apple Developer's Home Page lead to the costly pay options.

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Click on the blue "Get Started" button to begin. On the next screen, you'll be asked to choose between using an existing Apple ID and creating a new one. If you already have an iTunes account, or have registered here in the past, choose "Use an existing Apple ID", but if you're here for the first time, go ahead and click "Create an Apple ID".

Once you've made your choice, click "Continue".

Assuming that you're creating a new ID, you'll be taken to this page:

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Here, you'll be asked for several instances of personal information to aid in creating your profile. It's nothing too odd, just the usual name and address and such. Once you're done, hit the "Continue" button near the bottom.

On the next screen, you'll be asked to create a "professional profile".

Under the first question, which asks what platforms you develop for, go ahead and check "iOS", which is the operating system used by the iPhone and iPad (as you might have guessed). Once you check this box, you'll see more questions appear near the bottom of the screen.

What you put here isn't terribly important, but just try to give a general idea of the kind of apps you'll be making. You can always change this later. Hit "Continue" when you've finished.

Next, you'll be asked to read Apple's Developer Agreement, and certify that you agree to its terms and conditions. Check the box if you do

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(you're out of luck if you don't), and then hit the blue "I Agree" button to be taken to the last step.

Here, enter the verification code Apple sends to your email address, hit "Continue" and at last you're ready to access the developer's section of the website.

Now, navigate to "http://developer.apple.com/ipad/sdk", and you should see the following page:

Here, you'll be able to do several helpful things. First, you can download the iOS SDK 4, which is the 4th version of the software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone and iPad. This download includes everything you need to develop apps, including everything mentioned in the software section above.

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You'll also be able to access the iPad Programming Guide, which has a host of useful documents and tutorials, including ones on how to use Xcode, Interface Builder, and how to perform specific common tasks in the iOS framework. If you've decided to try and program your own iPad app instead of hiring a programmer, this section will be indispensible to you.

In addition, you'll also find a helpful listing of iPad Human Interface Guidelines. These are useful for helping you to develop your app in such a way that it will be user-friendly and intuitive. Others will ideally find navigating your app smooth and efficient and just be able to pick it up first time and already have a good sense for how it operates.

Following these guidelines is also a great way to improve your chances of passing the review process.

At the bottom, you'll find a few other useful things, such as an example of iPad code that you can peruse or alter in an attempt to learn more about the programming languages being used, or a guide on how to make your apps "universal" (that is to say, functional on all three iProducts, the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and of course the iPad.

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5 SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION

Once your app is finished, you’re obligated to submit it to Apple’s review process before it can appear in the App Store and start selling.

Apple’s uploading process involves electronically signing a release form so that, if it’s approved, your app will automatically go into the App Store under the arrangement specified in the release. If not, it’ll be returned to you, usually with an explanation as to why it was rejected.

While there’s no guarantee on the time it takes the company to review your app, the general consensus is that it usually takes a bit more than a week. This isn’t such a long time, but should you find yourself having to make dozens of tiny adjustments that keep getting you rejected, you’re going to wind up delayed by months, which could cost you being first in your market. That’s why it’s vital to take every step necessary to ensure that you pass the review the first time through.

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THE REVIEW PROCESS IN A NUTSHELL Because Apple is a private company, there’s no 100% accurate list of what they look for in their review process. But based on studying past rejections and acceptances, the developer community has put together a good list of important things to look over before submitting your app.

TOP REASONS FOR REJECTION The following are the main reasons why apps tend to get rejected.

Avoid these, and you’ll have dramatically increased your chances of acceptance the first time through. 

Bugs The consensus seems to be that bugs are the primary reason for any app rejection. If your program crashes, sticks, or behaves in some unexpected way, it’s not yet ready for the App Store, and Apple will let you know about it pretty quickly. Save yourself a headache by recruiting some bug testers and thoroughly testing your product before submission to ensure that it passes muster. This includes tests on real iPhone/iPad hardware.



Conventional Use of UI Your user interface should behave in the way that people have naturally come to expect based on using the iPhone and iPad. For example, if you use an icon that looks like the default iPad “accept” icon, only you make it cancel an operation when clicked, that’s not acceptable. Similarly, your menus and window flow have to behave the same way. In the iPad OS itself, if you click an action button, it tends

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Clean Up After Yourself Forgetting to get rid of windows after you’re done with them, or leaving an activity indicator spinning and showing progress even after your app has finished working are but two small examples of how programmers can forget to “clean house” after calling a routine. Be on the lookout for these.



Make it Obvious What’s Happening Be sure to have informative windows telling the user what is happening each step of the way, especially when unexpected errors or conditions are met. For example, if your app requires an internet connection in order to work, and it can’t find one, it’s not acceptable to simply have your app stop. It must display an informative window that explains that an internet connection is required, but not found.



Go Easy on the Bandwidth Any app that uses too much bandwidth will be rejected. This is because of the deals that Apple had to strike with AT&T on the iPhone.

Too much bandwidth means that AT&T’s telephony structure will be compromised, and they won’t allow that.



Never Assume Capabilities – Never have your app assume some kind of hardware capability that might not be universal. For example, if your app needs a built-in camera to work, then while it may be great for the iPhone, it’s no good for the iPad (which doesn’t have a built-in camera).



No Private APIs The iOS SDK allows for the use of several built-in frameworks and APIs

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Creating iPad Apps (Application Programming Interface), but doesn’t allow the developer to interface with external private APIs not specifically approved by Apple. They deem it too much of a security risk. 

No Interpreted Code Nothing can happen in your app that’s not accounted for in the source code itself. This means no “scripts” or “macros” can be ran from inside an app unless the sources of those scripts or macros are in the main source code. This prevents people from “hiding” controversial functionality from the reviewers.



Real Functionality Your app must actually do something. Early on, many people made “apps” that were just static page views of links to their websites.

Nowadays, Apple doesn’t allow this and demands that any submitted app actually do something.



No Duplicated Functionality While it must do “something”, it can’t do something that the apps built into the iPad already. This means no email clients, no browsers, no music indexers or players, and so on.



No Distribution of User Data Without Consent If your app is sending any data about a user, even something as harmless as game scores, to an external server, you must specifically ask for and receive the user’s permission via a window request.



Watch Out for Copyrights You must own the rights to use any material that’s in your app. This means that you can’t use the Star Wars theme unless you own the license to use it. It also means that you can’t use photographs, art, or sound effects others have created without their permission. This is why freelance artists and writers can be so valued in app creation.

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Creating iPad Apps Incidentally, this also applies to material owned by Apple. Don’t put the Apple logo, or any of the iPad icons or elements directly in your app. 

No Nudity or Objectionable Content There have already been a few controversial episodes surrounding Apple’s policing of content in the App Store, but the rules are still firm: no nudity, no libelous or slanderous content, nothing beyond PG-13 standards. If James Joyce can’t get an uncensored “Ulysses” past Apple censors, then you don’t stand a chance.



Describe Your App Truthfully Every app submission must include a written description of your app that will appear to interested buyers/downloaders in the App Store.

You must ensure that this description accurately represents the app and doesn’t promise any functionality that’s not actually included, or vice versa.



Use Proper Keywords While Apple allows the use of keyword tagging to help others find your app in the store, you must be careful and only use keywords that are truly appropriate for your app. It would be a shame to be rejected over something as trivial as this.



Back to the Drawing Board Lastly, you must be aware that edits and revisions to your app are counted as an entirely new submission. Just because you slipped something by the review board your first time around doesn’t mean it will get by the second and third times when you have to update or revise your app. It’s not worth the risk of having your app pulled and losing sales.

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6 MAKING MONEY OFF YOUR APPLICATION

Well, now your app is completed, which means your job is done, right?

Right? Not quite. While the actual labor of planning, developing, and getting your app to pass the Apple Review Process is at long last at an end, there’s still much work to do.

Of course, you could rest on your laurels, sit back and wait for the downloads to roll in. But the developers who do that are not the developers who tend to profit from their efforts. Thus far it’s been a fun but tough venture. If you rest now, it’s possible that all your work might go to waste. However, if you continue pressing forward and now put your efforts into doing some basic marketing for your product, you’ll have a much better shot at actually making some money.

MARKETING And this is only obvious, right? If you were involved in a traditional form of business investment, you wouldn’t put a ton of time and energy into manufacturing a product and then not bother to market it, would you? Just because your app is going to have automatic exposure via the App Store, you need to do a bit of work on your own to draw 74 ……………………………

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attention to it. That way, you help to ensure that it won’t get lost amidst all the other competing apps and will instead rise to the top and get noticed.

The good news is that unlike with traditional advertising, you don’t have to spend a ton of money to get the word out there about your products. Here are several things you can do that are either free, or close to it.

BLOGS AND FORUMS

Right now, the internet is in the midst of a revolution known as “Web 2.0”, and apps are at the heart of this revolution. If value added services and server-side execution are the crux of Web 2.0, though, blogs are the blood vessels that connect the system together. The “blogosphere” as it is called by many, is the loose connection of blogs and forums that exist across the internet. Although these entities are nominally separate from one another, they are in many important respects connected. Every day, people sign onto their blogs to share links they found interesting, or to talk about books, games, movies, or apps that they enjoyed. The people who read those blogs, if intrigued enough, often go and post on their own blogs and forums about the same topics. Soon, word of mouth catches on and you’ve got a hit on your hands. But it all has to start somewhere.

Most people who sell products on the internet nowadays maintain some type of blog that does that marketing. Now, this doesn’t mean that you make a blog and just make posts that say something like, “Oh, I’m now selling such and such item.” Nobody would bother to

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read such things. Rather, the blog is almost like a free value-added service that works in conjunction with your actual projects.

Here’s a good example. Suppose you were releasing an app that offered daily stock tips to subscribers. To support this, you might set up a blog where you regularly (once a week or so) post simple articles on the stock market, with tips and tricks and generally valuable information. You’d also go around and “friend” other blogs on similar topics, commenting on their posts and leaving links back to your own blog. In time, you’ll soon be an integrated part of the blogosphere, which means you can become something of an authority in whatever field you’re writing in. At that point, you could seamlessly post reviews and links to your own products along with all the other things you write and post about. Since you’re also building a reputation at the same time, this is a keen way to generate sales.

You might cringe at the idea of writing posts and articles for a blog.

The good news is, as with most things that require labor, you can outsource it to others. In this case, there are thousands of freelance writers waiting around out there to do jobs exactly like this one. You could pay such a writer just a few dollars each to write you a year’s worth of articles on the subject of your choice, and then post them gradually to your blog, just as if you were writing them on the fly. This isn’t a dishonest practice by any means; in fact, most entrepreneurs pay freelancers to generate copy for them, especially in the age of the internet.

Forums are also good, but tend to be a little more “old-fashioned” than blogs at this point. Plus, it takes longer to establish yourself as a respected member of a forum, and many of them don’t take very

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kindly to posts that are deemed advertisements. One thing that forums ARE good for, however, is networking with people who have interests similar to your own. This way, you can get a lot of market research done, and learn how to target your app towards the people who will definitely want to download it.

MAKE MORE APPS

Another way to promote your app is to build a reputation for yourself by creating more apps. Creating more apps allows you to reach a bigger audience, and also use one app to advertise another. There’s no real reason you couldn’t have advertisements or blurbs for your other works inside your apps, so long as the realm of interest is reasonably similar. Once you have several apps under your belt, you could even establish yourself as an app-making company.

If you really get into the app-making game, there’s no reason not to go this route. As a company who produces apps, you can set up a website to advertise and promote your apps, inform visitors about new apps in development, offer a newsletter with product release information. You might even run Twitter and Facebook accounts so that you can interact closely with your audience and get the word out even easier.

Do you think that the app-buying world would perk up and pay attention if the creator of iBeer announced he had a new app coming out? Likely so. There’s no reason your future app announcements can’t generate just as much buzz, if you put the work in to establish not just your apps, but your own identity as a quality producer.

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We’ve mentioned it a few other times already, but advertising is one of the key ways to get paid on the internet nowadays. Since we’ve already talked about putting ads in your apps in order to generate money without charging for the apps directly, you know how effective this can be. So why not embrace the opposite side of the coin? Why not release advertisements for your own apps?

It’s usually not terribly expensive to get ads for your apps hosted in key places. While getting front page ad space on the New York Times website is going to run you a pretty penny, you can look into lower cost alternatives such as the types of advertising offered by Google.

Their ads appear when an individual searches for a term related to your subject matter. So if you were selling your horoscope app, your ad might appear whenever someone searched for terms like horoscope, tarot, fortune, and so on. This is, for many, a better way to advertise altogether, because it has something of a built-in guarantee that everyone who sees your ads will be at least somehow interested in your product.

Often, you can facilitate what’s called an “ad exchange”, wherein you host ads for someone else’s works in exchange for their hosting ads for yours. This is similar to the kind of back and forth linking that happens in the blogosphere, but on a smaller and more subtle level.

Nevertheless, it can be very effective. Besides, who knows? Making acquaintances with other app developers in order to ad exchange with them may well lead you to other profitable contacts and connections as well.

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GETTING PAID

Once you’ve devoted all this time and energy to getting the word out there about your product, only one question remains: how do you get paid? When it comes to iPad apps, this is one of the easiest questions of all to answer.

When you register as a developer for Apple (the kind of registration you have to pay for, not the free one that allows you access to the SDK), you’ll be giving them information such as your name and address. Every month, Apple writes checks to everyone in its employ, and that includes people who are receiving a cut of the profits from the apps that they’ve developed and listed in the App Store.

Every month, Apple will automatically calculate how much revenue your apps have earned, take their 30% off the top, and then cut you a check for the remaining 70%. All you have to do to receive it is ensure that the information in your profile is accurate. Naturally, you’ll also

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need to have some kind of checking account, or some way to cash the check.

While this system is a convenient one, many are pushing for modernized methods such as direct deposit into PayPal or similar online banking alternatives. This is in response to one of the biggest drawbacks of the paycheck system: it can be quite slow. In fact, checks usually arrive in the developer’s hands an average of 45 days following the end of the month that you’re getting paid for. This can be disappointing to some, but if you plan ahead for it, it shouldn’t be too big of a deal. It’s good to know this, however, if you’re going to be paying your freelancers out of proceeds from the app.

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7 ADVANCED TIPS AND STRATEGIES

Now that we’ve covered in detail the process of planning an app, creating it, and getting it in the App Store, why don’t we take a look at some of the more abstract concepts that govern the success of failure of iPad apps as a whole? Now that you’ve got a good sense for how the apps are created, these are principles to keep in mind as part of the “big picture” that informs how much potential your apps have.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SPEED One of the most important things to consider as far as this market is concerned is that speed is of the utmost importance. When the iPhone was first developed, there was a time period in which apps were the newest and most novel commodities to hit the tech market in years.

Develops were excited by the potential of developing simple games or programs and being able to sell them for 10 or 20 dollars a download.

This kind of tactic was only feasible for a short while, however.

Because of the staggering popularity of apps, the marketplace quickly became flooded with the result that app developers had to lower prices, in some finding non-traditional sources of monetization.

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This isn’t to say that it’s no longer lucrative to develop for the iPhone, but rather that that early window of maximum profit and exposure closed fairly quickly. The good news is that we can expect a similar thing to occur with the iPad. In the months just after the launch of the iPad, the market surrounding iPad apps will almost certainly go through a period of adjustment, wherein apps developed to capitalize upon the new features of the iPad will sell like hotcakes. In time, however, it will normalize.

Here’s something to consider. The faster you get your app out there, the fewer competitors it will have, and the more exposure it will get.

At the same time, you’ll probably be able to charge more for it as well.

At this early stage of the game, it’s all about speed. Soon, especially because the iPhone apps still work on iPad, the market will be saturated, and while a hit will still be possible, you’ll have to fight harder for it. For now, whoever gets to market first is probably the one who is going to have the greatest success.

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THE “FREE” MARKET Yes, it would be nice to get in on this game in the early stage and benefit from the high price points that won’t continue to be feasible for very long. That said, however, no sustainable business model is built entirely around the temporary availability of a high price point. You can definitely still make money on iPad apps even after the early days of the market are at a close. It’s just that after the price point goes down, you have to shift your focus towards acquiring the biggest audience possible. Often, this means giving your product away for free.

THE MOVEMENT TOWARDS ADS

Supporting your app with ads rather than charging a fee for the app itself can be a great way to generate an audience. Ad revenue is by far the most popular way to monetize anything on the internet, and that holds true still when it comes to apps. On the whole, our economy in the west is moving towards an emphasis on free core products with companies profiting on optional value added services. It’s just the way that the market is moving, and the smart app developer will move along with it.

If you find this hard to believe, just look at some of the big numbers.

In January of 2010, Apple paid some 275 million dollars to acquire the company Quattro Wireless, on the basis of Quattro’s affinity for making money through advertising. If Apple of all companies is willing to put

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monetary faith in the power of advertising, you can be assured that it’s a solid model.

One of the biggest ad companies, especially as far as integrating ads into apps goes, Ad Whirl, has published some interesting findings as well. They state that free apps receive as many as eight times the downloads as pay apps, even those with a low price point of under one dollar. Additionally, the top free apps supported by advertising can make an average of between 400 and 1500 dollars a day! This is big money.

MICROTRANSACTIONS?

One other method of monetizing your app bears mentioning, and that’s micro transactions. Basically, micro transactions involve free core content that keeps a user’s payment info on file and charges the user a tiny nominal fee anytime they choose to access premium aspects of the service. This is similar to the freemium model, but with the difference being that the creator receives tons of tiny payments instead of a single one-time payment.

To get a good idea of how micro transactions work, imagine that you’ve created a game wherein the core game itself is given away for free, but you charge for certain items that your in-game avatar can wear. For instance, the user can complete the game without ever paying a dime, but if he or she wants to wear a top hat or an army helmet, or gain access to a special weapon or a new stage, he or she would pay some fee, usually a dollar or less. Each time the users wanted to access one of these features, the creator would receive tiny

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payments, or micro transactions, that over time would add up to a handsome profit.

At this point in time, micro transactions are very popular in Asia, but haven’t really caught on in the United States. The reason for this is perhaps a societal reluctance to let our financial billing information be held on to by some third party, no matter how “trustworthy”. Still, their popularity may be increasing, and it’s very worthwhile to pay attention to these kinds of trends. When and if micro transactions take off in the West, those who are able to get in on the ground floor are those who will profit the most from it.

SELLING WITHIN THE APP That said, no matter how you’re making money, selling within the app is one of the most popular ways to get paid for creating iPhone and iPad apps. The basic concept just seems to be that once people are invested in your app, they’re more likely to spend money. Therefore, it can be more profitable to focus your efforts on placing your sale points inside the app, rather than attempting to commoditize the app itself.

There are endless ways that you can monetize selling within the app; it just requires a bit of creativity on your part. One key way to do it is by selling “additional content”, or by having the original app “crippled” in some way. Perhaps a weather forecasting app only shows you the next 3 days, but for a fee, it can be upgraded to show you the next two weeks? Maybe a Major League Baseball score tracking app only lets you follow two teams, but if you pay, you can follow all 30?

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“Virtual goods” are another way to generate some profits from within your app. If you’ve ever used social networking tools like LiveJournal or Facebook, you’ll be familiar with these. On LiveJournal, for instance, users can send digital “gifts” to one another, such as Valentines hearts, rubber duckies, Christmas presents, and much more. Each gift costs the sender something like a dollar, and recipients can display all the gifts they’ve received on their profile. Facebook has similar functions wherein users of the popular Facebook game apps like Farmville or the like can pay money for advanced supplies, or to send gifts to their friends. Special items or equipment that you have to pay for in a game can fall into this category as well. This is a good way to make profit because if you think about it, the production cost is usually near-zero to “manufacture” such virtual goods.

THE QUIRK FACTOR If you look through the top selling apps in the App Store, and look at those apps that have performed well historically, you get a sense that it’s the quirky and novel apps that are truly profitable. This only makes sense. The market dictates that apps be sold cheaply, or even free.

Ergo, those apps which require less development time and resources stand a higher chance of turning a profit.

Not to keep beating a dead horse, but the examples of iFart and iBeer are quite demonstrative of this principle. It’s worth mentioning iFart in this discussion because it’s a quirky app with no real practical purpose and yet it netted its developer 40,000 dollars in just two days.

Technically speaking, it’s not a very complex product either. It’s basically just some sound files, and a menu that allows you to pick

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which of those sound files you want to play. Advanced features like the timer and delay make it a bit more complex, but for the most part this is a very simple idea – simple in concept and simple to implement and produce. Despite that, it was a bestseller. iBeer is much the same story. This app is literally just a single animation that takes advantage of the iPhone’s motion-sensitive capabilities to make it appear as if the user is drinking a beer.

Nevertheless, at one point it was the third most popular app in the App Store. Its developer is less forthcoming about his profits than the developer of iFart but we can safely assume that the profits have far outweighed the time and money that went into development.

DON’T COPY THE GREATS

Of course, we’re not advising you to reinvent the wheel. It’s real novelty and real quirk that pays, not just copying what others have done. If you were to release an app right now to make the iPad fart, it probably wouldn’t sell at all. And why would it? People already have iFart. This is a bit different from the traditional business model of identifying a niche and then filling it. With a truly quirky novelty app, it’s hard to identify a need because people won’t know that they want your app until they see it. That’s the beauty of it. Do you think millions of iPhone users sat around wishing they could make their devices fart or look like a beer? Probably not. But once the option was thrown out there, hey, it sounded like fun. And that’s how successes are made.

So when trying to develop a novelty app for the iPad, let your inhibitions down. Don’t be afraid to explore ideas that are dead ends, because you never know when that one golden concept will suddenly 88 ……………………………

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appear out of nowhere, and you want to be receptive to it when it does.

DOES IPAD CHANGE THE MARKET? Before its release, the iPad was billed as a revolution that would change the way we as a society use computers. This idea was that the app craze would utterly redefine the traditional standard of operating systems that run executable files that we’ve all been used to since Windows 3.1. In the future, will Apple replace OS-X with iOS? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, however, we can make some critical guesses about what effects the iPad will have.

THE DISRUPTION OF BIG MEDIA

One of the biggest things said about the iPad in the hype leading up to its unveiling is that it would provide a new avenue for profit for traditional media. Apple promoted the image of people reading magazines and newspapers on their book-sized iPads during breaks at work or at the breakfast table. By adapting their products to the iPad format, it was said, many struggling outlets of traditional media would be able to jump on the digital bandwagon at last and ride the wave into a glorious and profitable future.

While big name papers like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times may have success with their apps, this just isn’t going to be true for the majority of traditional media outlets. If a small town newspaper releases an app to allow users to read its stories on the iPad, how 89 ……………………………

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many subscribers would it ultimately have? Would the people in that locality actually buy the app, or, since they’re already online, would they just use a freely available news aggregator, or one of the apps associated with a bigger and more prestigious paper.

The bottom line is that, with a few notable exceptions, iPad isn’t going to save old media, it’s going to be an even bigger disruption to it.

But too many people fall into the trap of viewing this as a drawback.

Instead of lamenting the markets that are being killed by devices like the iPad, why not investigate what new markets are being created?

After all, if the giants of old media are at long last being felled, doesn’t that mean a more level playing field across the board? When new technology is throwing old models up in the air, that means the time is right for young creative thinkers to quite literally invent the future.

How will we read news in the future? How will we read fiction? How will we play games? In a very real sense, as an iPad app developer, you have an opportunity to help write the answer to those questions.

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CONCLUSION Well, it’s been a long journey, but we’re now at the end. Throughout the course of this book, you’ll have learned all about the new and exciting opportunities that exist in creating and selling iPad apps, as well as how to best go about capitalizing on those opportunities, from the planning and blueprint stages, all the way up to marketing your product and receiving a paycheck from Apple.

But there’s no reason to stop here. With one successful app under your belt, why not push the envelope and really make a name for yourself?

Many people are going to get in on the iPad rush as a way to make a quick buck, but it can be more than that. If you truly take the time to learn about what makes this market a unique one, and put all your effort into producing and marketing quality apps that fulfill real needs (even ones that people don’t know they have yet), then there’s no limit to how far you can climb in the world of app development.

The digital age is an exciting time for entrepreneurs. Good luck on this and all your future undertakings.

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Internet marketing resources

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