Certainly a large and abstract question, for an even bigger topic, but…
What does it take to develop a Mobile App?
What I am really getting at is not “Give me some code…” but rather I am wondering “Do I have the skills and ability to develop my own Mobile App that appears on something like the Apple Store?!”
Pardon me for saying this on my most favorite of websites, but anyone can build a web page and a website. (Although few can do it at the level that our beloved SitePoint Gurus can!)
Back to my original question…
It is my perception that to create a Mobile App that is worthy of the Apple Store, you might need a Ph.D. in Computer Science, 10+ years of professional experience coding in C, C++ and C#, and have built your own Java Compiler while still in high school?!
Realistically, how hard would it be for a mere mortal like me, to create a modest Mobile App that looks professional enough, and is secure enough that it could get placed on the Apple Store, and something the average person would feel confident enough in to want to install on their Smart Phone? :-/
Maybe a simple Mobile App like…
- A Calculator
- An App to Convert Measurements from U.S. to Metric
- An App that sends RSS-like News-Feeds on a given topic (e.g. Breast Cancer News, Global Warming Articles, etc)
- An Alarm Clock
Thanks to A LOT of help from people here at SitePoint, I feel like I have gotten pretty good with HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL. And I think the website I have been working on looks awesome.
But do I have what it takes to “Go Mobile”?!
It sure seems like if I could take the “awesomeness” of my browser-based website, and convert some of it into a Mobile App that people could use on their Smart-Phone, that I could open up a whole new world of Visitors and Customers!! (BTW, I am not asking about making my website “mobile”, I am specifically asking about creating some modest Mobile APP.)
In closing, how hard is it to do what I am thinking about??
Is this something only people like Steve Jobs and Bills Gates were made for?
Or could a decent - but still green - web developer figure things out in a reasonable amount of time?
Thanks,
Debbie