This is the first part of a three part series on the steps to take to become an iPhone app developer. My brother and I have written 21 apps in the app store and they seem to be doing quite well at the moment. If you are able to nail the right idea you could be on your way to make some big bucks considering the customer base for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is especially enticing for us Malaysians considering the fact that you get paid in USD.
Of course the first step would be to get a Mac for yourself. Sadly the iPhone SDK and XCode will not work on windows. You probably would look at this as your first and probably only investment to become an iPhone app developer. Once you have your machine ready you’re ready to start!
Ok, first you will need to register yourself as an iPhone app developer at the developers website.
To register you can use your apple ID (if you have one) or you can setup a new apple ID as well.
Registration is a breeze and just follow the on-screen instructions to setup your account. You will need to provide your contact information. To enroll into the iPhone developer program you will also need to make a one time payment of $99 via your credit card to Apple. You will see a list of countries listed and Malaysia is not one of them. Instead you will have to choose the option “Click here if you do not see your country listed here”. This will bring you to a page which sends an email to the appropriate Apple team. You will be sent a form with necessary instructions to fill it up. You will need to fill up the form with your credit card details and fax it back to Apple.
After this its a waiting game. From my experience it takes anywhere between 1 week to 2 weeks for Apple to acknowledge your payment. I have no idea why this happens but talking to other iphone developers in Malaysia it seems that this is the norm. So nothing to worry about but do follow up the fax with an email to the Apple team.
This is step one of your exciting journey to become an iPhone app developer. Stay tuned for the next article which outlines the steps for downloading and installing the iPhone SDK on your Mac.
Updated: Check out “How to become an iPhone app developer – Part Two”
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
#1 by Michelle Simons - March 9th, 2009 at 10:24
I sure can learn alot on your blog here!
#2 by matblogger - March 9th, 2009 at 10:33
Hi Michelle, glad you find this useful. Hope you will be a regular reader here too although it is more Malaysian focused
#3 by modmymac - March 14th, 2009 at 18:22
Nice one guys.. I’m not a developer but only a small time hacker for iphone here in Malaysia.. A few of my themes,sms tones, ringtones are now in Cydia. I’m interested to learn something from you about the SDK..
#4 by matblogger - March 15th, 2009 at 01:13
Hi modmymac,
Hope you will find the information that I will be posting on the SDK to be useful.
#5 by Jessica - March 24th, 2009 at 04:06
Other than getting a Mac machine, does iphone SDK provide any emulator to test the application?
#6 by matblogger - March 24th, 2009 at 06:29
@Jessica,
Absolutely! There is an iPhone emulator which is provided with the SDK.
#7 by Choy How - August 6th, 2009 at 18:18
Is it i can install the Mac Leopard on vmware running on Windows machine. I read some article, some say it can but i no luck on it. Anyone can share thier experience here?