iPhone Apps 101: How Do They Work?

The iPhone and its corollary - the iPhone App - have become so popular in a short amount of time that it's easy to take many of the advantages for granted.

For example, we now live in a world of GPS devices, but it's important to remember that just ten years ago, this technology might have seemed nothing short of amazing.

And while the iPhone is making the "big" things happen in small ways, it's also valuable to recognize and learn how the iPhone Apps is also adding "little" conveniences to our world.

Of course, not every iPhone Apps is about convenience - some are about pure dumb fun. Just a decade ago, using portable electronics for entertainment might mean taking a relatively clunky device out in public. These days all you need is an iPhone, partially thanks to the iPhone App.

So how does it work? Who makes them? How do they make them? Enter our university and we'll show you our introductory course: iPhone Apps 101.

Building and Developing an App

As it turns out, building an iPhone App is similar to just about any other business venture or enterprise: you're looking to fill a niche in the market and looking to market a product or service that people will really enjoy or find useful.

HawaiiBusiness has a profile of one such entrepreneur, Daniel Leuck, who noted:

You start by finding out what the customer is trying to accomplish with the application. If it’s a new company centered around the iPhone apps, we work on the corporate identity and the brand-identity application itself – what it is going to look like? Then we storyboard what the app is going to look like, which looks a lot like a storyboard for a film. Then we figure out how much it is going to cost to build. Once the customer OKs that, we go into development, then a (quality-assurance) phase, and then we release the app.

What part of that process sounds different from many other business processes? As it turns out, very little. The result is a market that is not very difficult to crack if you take a businesslike approach to building Apps. Of course, not every App builder is a business.

Who Builds the Apps?

It doesn't only take a special breed of person (and personality) to be interested in building an iPhone App - as opposed to simply downloading them - it takes a special kind of expertise.

Enter the App engineer. In order to program an App for the iPhone, you do need a level of specific skills in terms of the technology to produce it. If you're going to create an App, of course, that doesn't mean you have to do it - you'd just need enough money to hire someone who did know how to handle an iPhone App.

Designing iPhone Apps, in this way, is also similar to the other business projects we're all familiar with, such as hiring a ghostwriter to help pen an autobiography.

How Do you Make them Downloadable?

Of course, one big question some people have is how on earth you get your App to be downloadable. There are a few things to consider. You'll have to make sure your App matches Apple's development guidelines (hint: check out the iPhone Development Center at the Apple web site for more information) - you'll be able to find a programming guide at Apple's web site in order to make sure that your App meets the right specifications.

Finally, your App will have to be of some use to people. Some people might design Apps for themselves, but if you really want to market an App effectively, it might help to design something with others in mind. What will help them? What will entertain them? What will make them want to download your App? In many ways, this is no different than an ancient marketplace.