Customer Reviews

Starting an iPhone Application Business For Dummies

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Are you interested in learning about how to monetize an iPhone app? Then this is your book. Unless you're a C++ "Cocoa-touch" programmer, then you won't be designing or creating applications. If you're like me, you know enough to know that you need to hire and manage someone to do the programming. This book covers project mangement, and everything else you should think about when designing your iPhone application.

In particular, this book covers the marketplace, business offering, terminology, success rules, and Apple protocols for both the design and submission process. In addition, if you're new to the business world, this book covers many of the basics of establishing the enterprise.

I currently own a magazine, and am building an iPhone application. This guide was helpful and I would strongly consider reading any other guides written by Aaron Nicholson, Joel Elad, & Damien Stolarz.

If you're interested in getting a comprehensive overview of the iPhone application world this book does that. It is great resource for those of us who are not development wizards, nor trying to be. If you want a book on how to write a code, find another. This one provides good, solid information on starting an application business--planning, marketing and selling. Well written and easy to understand. Looking forward to the next update of this book.

This book won't tell you how to create an iPhone app. It will tell you how to hire developers to do it for you, but it won't guide you through getting your idea out of your head onto Apple's cool, hot iPhone. Still, even if you know how to write an app, and Apple has made it dead easy if you understand programming at all, you'll find a wealth of info here on how to set up your little business and market your app.

There are a bazillion apps out there now, but most of them are, as you probably know if you're reading this, junk. Finding the good ones can be challenging, but there is always room for more good ones and if you have a good one in you, this book will help you get your app noticed among all the clutter.

Full-blown software development companies probably aren't interested in what this book has to offer. They probably already have the expertise in-house.

What this book offers is advice for the first two phases of the software development life cycle (SDLC). They are Planning and Analysis. For example, this book offers advice on coming up with your idea, sizing up competitors, and putting together the application requirements. It also covers getting setup to be an Apple iPhone developer and the ins and outs of the App Store process.

Other topics include tips and best practices for putting together a development team, estimating costs, and budgeting. Marketing you app is also discussed.

So is this book worth reading? Yes, but one can figure out the App Store process, code an app (with the right skillset of course), and begin selling on the App Store without this book. Apple's own guides and documentation do a fair job walking you through the steps. I am such a developer, and started selling an app in the App Store prior to this book's publication.

Overall, this is a non-technical book that new App Store developers may find useful from a business perspective. It does a good job at summarizing all the steps not related to the actual code development.

I know Dummies books have a stigma, but I would have loved to have this one before I began writing apps. I've been doing so for a year now and have several in the app store. A LOT of what I've learned piecemeal through scouring the internet and through trial and error is covered in this book; everything from marketing techniques, to pricing/advertising choices, to idea generation and due diligence. Most people trying to get rich off writing iPhone apps fail, and a lot of the thought processes this book walks you through will show you why and give you a good base of knowledge so you have a better chance to succeed if you decide to go ahead and jump in.

The only thing I disagree with in the book is where it shows you how to run a business where you outlay money from the start and get a developer, designer, tester, etc. Unless you've got a solid idea that's been proven on another platform (such as Bejeweled), you have to be prepared for the possibility that your first app may fail. If you've bet the farm on it, then you're done. I really advocate starting as small as possible with your initial offering, and by that I mean low expense, few or no staff (if you can develop) and a limited functionality app. Don't try to hit it out of the park to begin with. If you can create a basic app and sell it successfully, you can issue updates (or a new app) later with all the fancy bells and whistles that will cost you more time and money to develop. Plus there's nothing better to keep word of mouth high than to revitalize their interest in the app with new useful features. Regardless, this book is pretty detailed and gives good advise on hiring people and planning budgets, and what gotchas you can expect.

Again, I was extremely satisfied and surprised by the content of this book. The authors have done a great job putting it together, and I wish this book was available in 2008 - I would have produced better apps more quickly if I had it during my learning process.

This book provides a lot of good information and strategies centered around building an iPhone business. It doesn't really get into too many technical details on iPhone app development which is not its focus. The guy who wrote the book clearly has a lot of experience and background in the iPhone app world illustrated by the many detailed examples provided. The author suggests many excellent business and marketing strategies to get started and eventually make your app a success. The strategies themselves could really be translated to any kind of embryonic business.

A lot of concepts and themes get repeated several times. I felt like there could have been a better defined structure because there seemed to be a lot of overlap.

Overall the information and advice given is helpful and its worth the read.

As the "Business" in the book-title indicates, this is not a software development methodology or a technical/programming book. This is a book that targets the business and management of iPhone application(s). It can be helpful both to teams working on an iPhone-app project or to individuals who wear all the hats.

For someone not familiar with iPhone app development, this book does a pretty good job covering most of the things you need to worry about. Please keep in mind that the iPhone world is fast-paced and things change quickly, so you will still have to cross-reference things online.

This book can also be helpful to individual developers who may not be familiar with the non-geeky aspects of app development, such as legal, marketing, planning, user experience, and other things of that nature.

Some of the concepts and tips in this book may also be helpful to people working on apps for other platforms, however this book is customized for the iPhone world, and Apple is typically doing things the Apple-way, so they may not necessarily apply. If you are in this situation, use this book for ideas and suggestions, but be sure to check how things are done in your target platform.

One measure of a book's usefulness is the number of things it teaches the reader. I've been a registered iPhone developer from the beginning, have a few modest apps in the app store, and have written fairly successful apps for third parties, and I definitely learned things from this book. This book is chock full of ideas, and ideas on getting the idea that becomes the next big app. How to scout out what others are doing, right and wrong and find the biggest juiciest market opportunity you can find. How to spec out an app. Hire a designer. Higher a coder. Pay people. Decorate your offices. Deal with lawyers. How to start viral marketing campaigns, write a press release, send non Spam mailings...

In other words, it's pretty comprehensive. As a coder, I've tended to avoid all the drudgery outlined in this book, and that's probably why my apps have not been monetary successes. If I had followed these guidelines, chosen projects with broader appeal in proven categories, used professional help for the parts I am not qualified at (like sound design), and then followed through with the comprehensive marketing techniques given in this book, then maybe I'd be making some money. Making quality apps is not enough, they have to be quality apps a large number of people want, and apps which those people know about.

The book is not about actual development, which is fine, and the chapter about learning about development (Chapter 9) could have been done away entirely as being gratuitous. Plenty of other material on actually writing apps. Too much sometimes.

It's also filled with filler. Sometimes you read a book and think the author was paid by the word. A tighter, smaller book would have been appreciated. Still, a solid 4 for all the effort in compiling this information. Certainly saved me time.

This book won't take the place of expert or high specialized knowledge, but it does provide a useful overview of the Apple App Store market and how it operates. For any given area such as finding programmers or application design, you're probably going to want more depth. However, the book was surprisingly full of useful knowledge that would give a person a good idea of how to start developing a business plan to sell iPhone/iPod Touch Apps.

It took me a long time to get around to this review, because I was still learning how to write apps when I ordered it. When I did finish a couple of apps, though, it gave a lot of good advice on how to promote and monetize them.

Please note that this book does *not* tell how to write apps. It does tell you about hiring a coder, though. It then leads you through the steps you need to put Apps in the App Store and have them seen... and make money, if that's your aim. Personally, I decided that I didn't want to do all the work it takes to really be successful selling apps, so I just decided to hope for the best.

I found the book to be very useful, but it could have been shorter. Probably I would have given 5 stars if it had been more succinct.