How To Be a Mobile App Developer? As a coder, if mobile app development is what you feel is your calling, here's a detailed guide to what you must do to create a successful career off it.
By Debroop Roy
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For any and every need today, one can find numerous mobile applications out there. There are individuals and studios coming up with novel ideas to stay ahead in a field that is already hyper competitive.
As a coder, if mobile app development is what you feel is your calling, here's a detailed guide to what you must do to create a successful career off it.
Making a Mobile App
The first step is to figure out the app's purpose. With so many out there, it is important that your app stands out, even if it solves a problem that already has solutions. For example, you may want to make a new picture editing app. There is going to be a lot of competition no matter how well-made it is.
Go back to the drawing board if your idea isn't adding any value to what is already available.
After you are done figuring out what the app is going to do, the next step is to choose a platform for your app, that is, whether you want it to work on Android or iOS. Other operating systems do exist but these happen to be the two most widely used ones currently.
The programming language for iOS is Objective-C and C, while for Android, it is Java.
Step By Step
Browse through the respective app stores and get a deeper understanding of what you wish to solve. Research is a significant step.
Make a list of all the functionalities your app would have. Going back to the picture editor example, you could want an option to crop, an option to improve brightness and a few preset filters.
Design how each of your app's functionalities will work and how the end user will interact
Coding the app
Test your app, and get a select few to use it. Get feedback and improve till the end product works fine. This step is necessary to quash bugs if any.
Uploading to the platform it is designed for.
Finances
Making an app is time consuming but if you are already a developer with the knowhow of necessary programming languages, it doesn't cost you much to make a basic one.
To get your apps listed on the Google store, you just need to pay a one-time fee of $25 while for Apple store, you are charged $100 a year. One part of the reason why Apple charges more is because it is not quite easy to get your app on their store.
If you build an app that doesn't need the internet for any of its functionalities to work, it means you do not really need to rent out storage space on the cloud. Otherwise, you might need to pay up a little for cloud, which could amount to as little as $5 a month.
One of the most common ways to monetize apps are in-app ads. Another way of monetizing is in-app purchases. You could keep some functionalities free and once you have a loyal user, see if a few exclusive paid features can make them pay.
Subscriptions or completely paid apps are also popular, but you need to really be offering something different to get people to buy it.
