How do you get to be an iPad Developer

What it takes to be an iPad developer

Last year I had some time on my hands and thought that it would be a good idea to learn how to be an iPad developer. I had a couple of ideas that I thought would be good to make into IOS applications. Although I am a bit of a geek with a definite technical bent, I have to admit that I struggled with being a programmer after the initial basic stages. I bought a number of books to learn how to do the programming and to be fair I did learn quite a bit. I geeked out like never before and had some fun with Xcode and Objective-C.

The iPad developer diverted

The main reason for wanting to learn iPad programming was the desire to make some money. Since it was introduced, the iPad has been rising and market forces would dictate that making applications for the iPad could be lucrative. The only trouble is, that it takes quite some time to learn how to be good at programming, that it is easy to be diverted into something that would make money a little bit quicker. Maybe it is a little bit easier for these script kiddies that have nothing better to do in between playing games on their Xbox. For me, what I needed in order to find success as a programmer would be a course where I could ask questions of the lecturer.

Learning to be an iPad developer on my old iMac

My iMac is a huge step up from the first personal computer and excellent to do whatever sort of computer work. It was just about in my price range and with the large screen it is good if you want to read iBooks on Mac-based computers. If I had wanted a Mac Mini eBay would have been a good place to look. Can you imagine a comparison between the first computer ever made which would have filled a large room and the tiny, minuscule Mac mini.

The effect of market forces on an iPad developer

When you are coding for the Macintosh OS and even more so for iOS you have to bear in mind that there are lots of people that have decided to have a go at making money with programming. Many have thought that it is like getting an Apple printer, sending some code to it in order to print money. While having a good or even a great idea for an application is a good start, you also need a lot of luck to get your application discovered. Now that there are thousands of applications covering all sorts of computing endeavours, it can be tough to hit the jackpot by being an iPad developer.

Has the fat lady started singing yet?

I still would like to finish off learning how to do programming. It would be excellent to be able to bring to fruition the ideas I had for some iPad applications. Hopefully those ideas will not be realised by somebody else, before I get far enough with my effort to learn how to be an iPad developer. With learning how to develop iPad applications you really have to be quite determined. It can be as tough as learning a new foreign language. Sometimes, I think that Objective-C is about as foreign as you can get.

IPad developer resources

• The Big Nerd Ranch

• The iOS 4 Developer’s Cookbook

• Programming in Objective-C

• iPad developer resources at Apple