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Chapter 1: Creating Killer iPhone Applications
The iPhone OS is particularly unforgiving when it comes to memory usage. If
you run out of memory, it will simply shut you down.
This just goes to show that not all limitations can be exploited as “features.”
Why Develop iPhone Applications?
Because you can. Because it’s time. And because it’s fun. Developing my
iPhone applications has been the most fun I’ve had in many years (don’t tell
my wife!). Here’s what makes it so much fun (for me, anyway):
✓ iPhone apps are usually bite-sized — small enough to get your head
around. A single developer — or one with a partner and maybe some
graphics support — can do them. You don’t need a 20-person project
with endless procedures and processes and meetings to create some-
thing valuable.
✓ The applications are crisp and clean, focusing on what the user wants
to do at a particular time and/or place. They’re simple but not simplistic.
This makes application design (and subsequent implementation) much
easier — and faster.
✓ The free iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) makes development
as easy as possible. I reveal its splendors to you throughout this book.
If you can’t stand waiting, you could go on to Chapter 3, register as an
iPhone developer, and download the SDK . . . but (fair warning) jumping
the gun leads to extra hassle. It’s worth getting a handle on the ins and
outs of iPhone application development beforehand.
The iPhone has three other advantages that are important to you as a developer:
✓ The App Store. Apple will list your application in the App Store, and
take care of credit card processing, hosting, downloading, notifying
users of updates, and all those things that most developers hate doing.
Developers name their own prices for their creations; Apple gets 30
percent of the sales price, with the developer getting the rest.
✓ Apple has an iPhone developer program. To get your application into
the store, you have to pay $99 to join the program. But that’s it. There
are none of the infamous “hidden charges” that you often encounter,
especially when dealing with credit-card companies. I explain how to
join the developer program in Chapter 3 and how to work with the App
Store in Chapter 12.
✓ It’s a business tool. The iPhone has become an acceptable busi-
ness tool, in part because it has tight security, as well as support for
Microsoft Exchange and Office. This happy state of affairs expands the
possible audience for your application.
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