How easy it is to become an App developer!

Try this.....it works!!!

Last week I published my first App!!! It was easy and pretty quick and illustrates how rapidly the world is changing.

I know, I know, I have blogged about the increasing rate of change, but every now and then it really slaps you in the face. I haven't completed this journey yet, but I thought I would share some of the experience so far.

As I have said I looked at creating an ebook in 2010. I wanted to see what could be done with the new technology such as iPads and the reach they offer through the Apple Store and the millions of users around the world.

At that point I looked into how one created an ebook and got it onto the Apple platform. The route was not that easy. There were a number of ways to create an ebook, but they cost either in buying software or the services of others. Yes, there was some free software, but that left the author with a lot to do. It did not feel quite ready, at least not to me, so when my co-operative effort floundered I was not too disappointed.

Since then we have seen the rise of the Android OS on smart phones and the supporting Marketplace. I have an Android phone and am very happy and I have been keeping an eye on tools to create Apps for the iPad. I did not find anything much for the iPad, just for smart phones and that did not really meet my vision.

At the beginning of this year I revived my ebook project, with a new idea on content. I have been working on that since then. I also had another look for creation software and came across iBuilderApp.com . This site offer a free web-based platform for creating smart phone apps along with native iPad apps. OK, it is template based so not suitable for everything, but with a little imagination it is suprising what can be created.

I am now putting together my "book" using one of their templates and I am pleased with the previews so far. I have a few more weeks of work to create a finished product, but I am hopeful that this time it will all come together.

I then received an invitation to a "free" webinar about how to create Apps. I listend to that on Thursday evening and was both excited and a little disappointed. The disappointment was that the free webinar was primarily the promotion of another platform that be used to create apps from templates. This one is more powerful and potentially more commercial (www.gomobilesolutions.com). This is aimed at freelancers who  then use the tool to create apps for various businesses and clubs. Some of the numbers quoted were impressive, eg installed users, viewing rates etc. It is solely for smart phones as it offers ways to use the location based services, the camera function and for the sending of push notices ie short messages that pop up on the phones of users who have agreed to the service.

This made me think that I should look at the smartphone option, initially as a promotion tool, but maybe as a companion to the book. I did not know where this would go but on Friday afternoon I decided to have a go.

I went back to use iBuilderApp as it offers a way to create iphone and Android apps through the same set up.

In the space of a couple of hours I had put together an app, given it content, designed and loaded the graphics and downloaded the resulting package.

I needed to sign up as an Android developer ( a one time $25 fee ) in order to load this to the Android Market place. I set up the upload and completed the information and a few more graphics and pushed the button.

I found my app on the Google Marketplace with half an hour!!!!!!!!!

All in all from start to finish I spent less than four hours. Yes this trial/promotional item is free so I didn't need to set up a merchant account, but I have every confidence that that will be as easy when I come to that.

Right now there appears to be an known issue with Samsung Galaxy SII so I am not able to use it on my own phone, but I am confident this will be solved shortly. At the start of this blog is a view of what I created. A search of the Android Marketplace using "Change Sponsors Guide) should give access to the app. If you do download the app and you have problems, please do let me know - I am still learning fast.

I am not claiming it to be the best app ever, but rather showing how easy it is for Joe Public to now create content (free or charged) for use on the smartphone and tablet platforms.

I will be signing up as an Apple developer soon ($99 I believe) in order to trial the app on the iphone and get the eventual iPad product loaded.

If anyone is interested the book is looking like this right now

As I said at the start I find it exciting and scarey how the world is changing and how easy it is to access these new mobile platforms. Of course it will get crowded and the finding ways to stand out will be critical, but the potential is enormous!!.