Want to design an iPhone app?

The iPhone has created unprecedented excitement and innovation from people both inside and outside the software development community.

People outside that software development community brainstorm on unique ideas for iPhone applications, yet often forget that to turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into one decent application that can continue to innovate and grow for years, and requires a lot of start-up commitment and time. This article presents various ideas, techniques and tips that you may find useful when creating your first iPhone appl ication.

1.Do You Have an Good Idea? Think Again...

Before jumping into process of creating an app, you should concentrate on developing an idea, a very good idea. How do you know that your app is worth time and often money? To ensure that you get the most positive feedback from these people, you should focus on one of the following questions:

• Does your app make people laugh?

All-ages app. If you can come up with something really funny and people encourage you on creating the app, then you are on a right track and ready to create your own app. 

• Is it better than something that exists already?

Don't feel down, if you find your idea has been taken. Develop and enhance it. The market is full of 9 star apps, but be sure to think of something which was absent in these apps and improve them to get you lucky 10. Don’t be satisfied with just a wine list, give sommeliers a way to talk to their fans!

• Does it make life easier?

An app serves both to entertain and to free from certain manual duties. The second purpose is highly required due to hectic day to day life. Think of something that would save somebody's time. 

• Is it full of action? 

Well, it should be if your app caters to a specific audience, who cant get enough of interactive features. Let’s face it, most of us have the attention span of a flea. Successful games and utilities engage the user by requiring action!

2. Get Tooled Up! 

Below are only some of the items you will need to create your app: 

• join the Apple iPhone Developer Program
• get iPhone or iPod Touch (Yes, in all odds you will need an iPhone to create an app)
• get Mac computer with Mac OS X 10.5.5,
• download and install the latest version of the iPhone SDK
• iPhone Photoshop GUI Template 
• iPhone PSD Vector Kit

3. Focus on Target Audience of Your App

It's hard to think of something that will attract all people at the same time. You should focus on one or perhaps two audiences when developing an idea. For example, we already established that your app will be about pink ponies who will teach colours to children. Effectively, your audience will be children. Well, fine, they are children and maybe fans of ponies as well, but who are they really? What actions will they take to achieve their goals within the app?

Ultimately, the goal is already narrowed down: teach colours to children. But it's again up to you how you are going to deliver the information. Will you fill the app with text? Not a good idea. Will the ponies say the colours, which randomly appear on the screen of a child's iPhone? A much better idea.

4. Your Commitment and Time

• If you want to create an iPhone app, you need to understand the capabilities of the iPhone beforehand. The easiest way is to download top ten apps in each category and play around with them. Be sure, to make notes on different features and facilities in the apps. This might be very useful when creating your own app.
• It will be also helpful to make a bit of market research and find out what some apps are missing and how this affects their place in the rating. Learn from both perfect apps and those which got the worst reviews possible.
• Wait for it. It gets harder... If you are not good in programming and coding than you've got to find a coder. The main piece of advice when working with a coder or a programmer is that you should never pay hourly. You will pay hundreds, and maybe even thousands of pounds paying by the hour.  When you’re using the outsourcing sites like oDesk, Elance or vWorker, have a set price.  That way, you won’t get overcharged by your programmer.

• If you a not good in design and drawing that you'll also need someone who is good at graphic design. This might take quite a bit of time and effort, but every extra hour spent on design will significantly improve quality. Spend as much time as needed.

5. Submit Your App to Apple Store

Submitting your application to Apple Store is not hard, yet the process of compiling your application and publishing the binary for iTunes Connect can be difficult for anyone unfamiliar with XCode. If you are working with a developer, ask them to help you:

• Create your Certificates
• Define your App ID’s
• Create your Distribution Provisioning Profile
• Compile the application
• Upload to iTunes Connect

They can do all the hard job for you and you can play with the ponies later. 

6. Stay Focused!

It’s easy when you are working on your first app to get excited. However, your first app is a your first step into unknown world and getting involved in too many projects at once can dilute your passion for making your first application a success.

I hope these tips help a bit and good luck with your projects!