Producing & Publishing an iPhone App - Lessons Learned

Description

THE GREAT AUSSIE PIE APP 1.0 (Free)
(Published by BWMBooks)

Got a hankering for a Great Aussie Pie? Then the Pie App is for you. The Pie App will tell you the location of the nearest award winning pie.

Based on the results of the 2011 Great Aussie Pie Competition, the Pie App maps your location in relation to the nearest retail outlet selling award winning pies.

Once you have found your nearest retail outlet, the app will show you which pies were awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze medals, address details of the retail outlet and directions of how you get there from where you are.

BWM Books produced and published its first iPhone App today! While it is a relatively simple App the process has taken about three months and it cost the client around ... Well, before I tell you the price, below was my first quote:

"There'd be an iPhone developer, Business Analyst & Tester, Interaction Designer and project manager assigned to deliver the project. Adding up the tasks/ duration brings us to a range of $20,000 -$30,000 for the app which would include any fixes Apple might request of us after having submitted the app which is unlikely in this case but might still occur. "

$20,000 to $30,000 for a simple navigation App! Madness!. Suffice to say, I thanked them and went on my merry way to find someone else that could create the App. The first quote was from an Australian App development company and I'm not sure whether this suggests that Australian companies are being bluffed into thinking that creating a smartphone App is a tricky and expensive business, or this was a one-off. Like website creation, it doesn't have to be expensive. But like creating a website - some websites are simple, some are more complex and prices will vary accordingly. 

I next went to Freelancer. I looked at App development jobs similar to mine and sourced a couple of developers that priced reasonably....(less than $2,000) and went from there.

Lessons learned in creating an App

1. Look for published apps that you can use as a model for yours. This will be very important in communicating your requirements to your developer. Contact the developer or publisher of the App that you like and ask for a quote.
2. Get another quote
3. And another
4. Spend some time working out your requirements and your data sets before you start communicating with your developer. No developer likes to start working on one thing only to be told things need to change or data sets need to be updated. 
5. Be as specific as possible in every element including wording, functions, look and feel.
6. Have in mind your App 1.0 but begin to think about the next version of the App 2.0 but concentrate on getting App 1.0 live first before you bombard your developer with ideas about future versions.  
7. If you have a deadline of when you want the App live, ensure you receive a test version of the App 3-4 weeks before the live date. Changes will be inevitable, you need this time for tweaks. 
8. Be patient and expect the odd technical snafu along the way. 

BWM Books charges 20% of a project budget as its fee to project manage the creation of a smartphone App. Having a good project manager that can translate the business requirements of the client while being cognizant of the technical issues with software development is very worthwhile.  

Contact BWM Books here if you want to make your App idea a reality. 

What are some of the lessons you have learned? Let me know.