Few Things Developer Should Know Before Starting iPad App Development

Apple Inc. has always been a market leader when it comes to innovation in the field of smartphones and tablets. While Android OS has given Apple stiff competition, the company isn’t one to stop and ponder. It is innovative and lives by working on newer technologies. The iPad from the trusted stable of Apple has been a show-stealer in the tablet market encouraging several players to venture into iPad app development. There are thousands of iPad apps that are listed in iTunes and many more are being added every day. If you are also one of the newcomers who want to establish your foothold in the bustling iPad market, you should start by knowing a few important things about iPad app development.

Get a Mac – The most essential requirement to become an iPad app developer is to get a Mac. Since you are aiming to build an app for the Apple operating system, it is only obvious that you use a Mac for the purpose. If you do not have a Mac, the first thing you should do is invest in one.

Play with Development Tools - For the beginners it is essential that they play around with the development tools that help build an iPad app. The official app development platform is called Xcode and it can be freely downloaded. However, Xcode is different from Eclipse and Visual Studio so you would need time to get the hand of it.

Know Programming Languages - Xcode uses Objective-C and thus it is more or less important that you know Objective-C. Additionally you should also know basic programming languages such as C++ and Java. However, if you do not know Objective-C, the other easy alternative is using Corona, the LUA language. The other alternatives include using HTML5, MonoTouch, Titanium, and PhoneGap.

Understand the Features of iPad – There are several things in iPad that are new or different. One of these things is the enlarged screen size. If you are thinking that developing an iPad app is similar to developing an iPhone app you are quite wrong. In order to get acquainted with the features of iPad, it is a good practice to first use iPad and run several apps on it.

Create a Developer Account – If you are serious about iPad app development and want to commercially run it, you will have to get a developer account with iTunes. Using the developer account, you can submit your app to the iTunes app store. However, it takes time to create an account.

See What Sells – To make a commercial iPad app, you should first know what sells. Check out the iTunes app store and see what are the different kinds of app listed on the page. Remember that iPad has very limited GPS support so you should not concentrate on developing GPS-based apps.

iPad apps can become very popular if you know how to develop the app properly. For a newcomer, it is best to take time and build the app.

About the Author:

This article is contributed by ValueCoders, a web/mobile development company India, specialized in web/mobile application development. One can hire iPhone programmers and Android programmers here for effective mobile application development services.