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App Development Resources and Tools

thinslicer

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Tools to help EXECUTE app-building IDEAS

Lists
-100 Tools to Develop the next killer iOS or Android App (April 2012) (**Numbered lists below are from this list, credit and thanks to dailytekk!!:eusa_clap:)
-30+ tools
-

Books
-App Empire by Chad Mureta
-Lifehacked by Allen Wong
-Beginning iPhone Development by Jeff LaMarche and Dave Mark (website)

Freelance Marketplaces
-Elance
-Odesk

Market Research
-http://www.visionmobile.com/

News
-Mobile | TechCrunch
Random + Noteworthy Tools

  1. Tapjoy - Drive more installs and boost your revenue.
  2. Vungle – Video trailers for your app.
  3. Skala Preview – Sends lossless, color-accurate previews to any iOS device.
  4. Apptopia – Buy and sell app ownership.
  5. appbackr – Get your apps funded or profit from funding apps.
  6. Ooomf – Create a beautiful landing page for your iPhone app in minutes.
  7. App Annie - App store analytics and market intelligence.
  8. Mopapp – App store analytics.
  9. Pieceable – Make your iOS apps work in the browser.
  10. Chupa – The marketplace for buying/selling mobile app components.
  11. Distimo - Providing valuable insight into the app store marketplace.
  12. Appsfunder - Fund your development. Build up customers. Keep ownership.
  13. PlayHaven – Mobile game LTV maximization platform and cross-promotion.
  14. Appstores.com – White label app store and distribution platform.
  15. Cloudmine – Stop writing backends for your mobile apps.

WYSIWYG Editors
or DIY (No Coding) App Creation Tools

  1. Cabana - The visual way to make gorgeous custom mobile apps. *RG
  2. Mobile Roadie - Full CMS, no coding app builder for iOS and Android.
  3. Appafolio – 100% native apps, content caching for offline viewing and more.
  4. AppMakr – Point and click solution for building rich content based apps.
  5. RareWire – DIY app creation studio. Coming soon.
  6. GameSalad Creator – Create, test and publish your own game. Drag and drop.
  7. Bizness Apps – Mobile apps for businesses made easy.
  8. WebMobi – Create a mobile web app in minutes. Many features.
  9. SwebApps – An easy way to build your app in minutes.
  10. TapLynx – Create an app from your website in minutes.
  11. AppBreeder – “The online iPhone app builder.â€
  12. App Press – Build iOS apps without coding.
  13. Dapp – The app design app. WYSIWYG editor with 100% money back guarantee.
-Application Craft
-Didmo (Magmito)
-Exadel (Tiggzi)
-iBuildapp
-Kony
-Mobile Nation (MobileNationHQ)
-Mobjectify
-Netbiscuits
-Pyxis (now Verivo)
-Radical Breeze (Illuminations Software Creator)
-Red Foundry
-RunRev (Livecode)
-Seregon Solutions (DragonRad)
-Smartface
-Spot Specific
-UXplus
-Wix Mobile

Game-Related
-Corona
-Marmalade
-Unity
-Unreal
-The commercial iphone game engine comparison

Development, management, & analytics platforms

  1. Parse – Add a powerful and scalable backend to your app in minutes.
  2. Appboy - User engagement, CRM, analytics and more.
  3. Flurry - Analytics, traffic acquisition and monetization.
  4. Mixpanel - Mobile analytics. Actions speak louder than page views.
  5. Scoreloop – Cross-platform mobile gaming SDK. Virtual currency and more.
  6. PhoneGap – Open source HTML5 framework that supports 7 platforms.
  7. Kontagent - User analytics for the mobile web.
  8. Appcelerator – Mobile app platform for building on Android, iOS and mobile web.
  9. Kendo UI Mobile – Build HTML5 apps that look native on any device.
  10. Appoxee - Making mobile app engagement easy, effective and trackable.
  11. Localytics – Powerful tools and actionable insights.
  12. Precog – Harness the power of big data to build smarter apps.
  13. Apsalar – Allows mobile publishers to analyze, optimize and monetize.
  14. Sencha – HTML5 framework for mobile devies.
  15. Flow – Build real-time apps faster, better, smarter.
  16. Game Closure – Offer a JavaScript game SDK. Runs on mobile/tablet devices.
  17. StackMob – Robust and flexible end-to-end HTML5 platform.
  18. Claritics – Intelligent analytics for mobile app developers.
  19. Tiggzi – Cloud-based mobile app builder.
  20. Capptain – Combines analytics and CRM features.
  21. Placed – The Placed SDK enables location analytics for your app.
  22. GENWI - Cloud publishing for mobile.

Helpful Websites
-http://www.mobiletuxedo.com/ (site contains list of resources!)

Cross-platform tools
-For the full list check out visionmobile CPT report at their site or this link for the report on slideshare, very helpful website

Mobile Ads + Monetization

  1. iAd – A significant revenue stream for iOS developers.
  2. Millenial Media - Monetization solutions for mobile app developers.
  3. inneractive – Mobile advertising and marketing.
  4. Burstly – Empowers developers and enables them to make more money.
  5. Airpush – Push ad network. Android app monetization.
  6. Medialets – Mobile rich media advertising.
  7. xAd – Local mobile ads.
  8. madvertise – European mobile advertising marketplace.
  9. Pontiflex – Mobile performance advertising.
  10. WHERE Ads – Deliver relevant local ads to your audience.
  11. Jumptap – Targeted mobile advertising.
  12. Tapgage – Mobile interstitial ads (also has a “click exchange†for driving traffic).

Mockup & UI Design Tools

  1. App Cooker - Advanced iOS mockup generator for mobile applications.
  2. Proto.io – Silly-fast mobile prototyping.
  3. Mockabilly – App for creating mockups on iPhone.
  4. UI Stencils – Stencils, sketch pads and accessories for UI design.
  5. Interface – Mockup and prototyping app for iPhone/iPad.
  6. justinmind – Rich interactive wireframes to define mobile apps.
  7. UXPin – User experience design tools for professionals.
  8. Symbolicons - Simple, precise and awesome vector icons.
  9. Prototypes – Turn your stackable designs into a tappable iPhone prototype.
  10. Blueprint – An iPad app for mocking up iPad/iPhone applications.
  11. Mobility – A free set of mobile UI design elements.
Test, Refine and Get Feedback

  1. Apptentive – Easy in-app feedback for iPhone application developers. *RG
  2. Apphance – Instant, accurate and complete mobile testing.
  3. Crashlytics - Powerful yet lightweight crash reporting for iOS and Android.
  4. StartUpLift – Submit your startup. Get featured. Get feedback.
  5. Crittercism – Gives you real-time, actionable crash reports for mobile apps.
  6. BetaBait – Find beta users and testers.
  7. BugSense – Crash reports for Android, WP and iOS apps.
  8. FieldTest - Currently in private beta.
  9. iPad GUI PSD – A free vector iPad GUI set.
  10. uTest – End-to-end software testing.
  11. Truevoo – Submit iPhone apps for users to review.
App Promotion & Marketing

  1. apptap - App search, recommendations and marketing.
  2. AppCod.es - iOS app store SEO and marketing.
  3. Appency - Professional mobile application marketing.
  4. App.net - Market your mobile apps with beauty, strength and intelligence.
  5. Chartboost - Succeed in the app store through cross-promotion.
  6. Appular - iPhone application marketing and public relations.
  7. Appia - An open app marketplace with over 32k developers.
  8. App Store Optimization - SEO for mobile apps.
  9. AppCircus - The global open app showcase platform.
  10. buzzdoes - App marketing and distribution tool.
Enhance App Functionality

  1. PubNub - Blazingly fast cloud-hosted messaging service for real-time apps.
  2. Xtify - Push notifications for iOS, Android and Blackberry devices.
  3. Lookio - Live in-app support for mobile applications.
  4. CENZIC - Solutions for mobile application security.
  5. SecureUDID - A UDUD solution that’s secure and respects privacy.
  6. Verious - A mobile app component marketplace.
  7. ZooZ - Start accepting secure in-app payments within minutes.
  8. Applingua - iOS app localization (translation) service.
  9. Trestle - Powerful cloud services for your mobile apps.
Other and Miscellaneous

  1. Interstate – Plan and share development progress using roadmaps.
  2. Mobile Orchard – The iPhone app developer’s blog.
  3. Appolocious - Discover iPhone and iPad apps. A Yahoo directory.
  4. Orientation to Android Training – Official Android classes.
  5. StackOverflow - Question and answer site for programmers.
  6. Tap2Print – Monetize your photo/image app.
  7. StartApp – Get paid for your Android app downloads.
  8. AppLover – Helping build amazing applications.
  9. BlueStacks – Run Android apps on Windows.

This post is just to simply list the category and name of the resource, the appreneur can discuss further in the thread and talk about details of the tool, ranking of each tool in each category could be an interesting option also (not sure how tho, periodic survey polls maybe). Let me know what you guys think, and feel free to suggest tools and resources and categories.

Update #1 9/27 More tools and some links update, links will be work on when I have more time, but you can just google of course. Maybe later, owners of tools can chime in, that will be awesome to see. Please post suggestions to make this thread better, it's here for the fastlane community to pick up some balls to the wall speed and get on that dream-chasing accelerator metal pedal! :driving:
 
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thejanitor

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Honestly, Xcode and all of the resources within Apple Dev is the way to go. Additionally, Appcelerator Titanium is not a bad way to go either as you can code as normal and Titanium will convert it all into the APIs for an array of devices such as iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows and even standard mobile web.

https://developer.apple.com/xcode/

http://docs.appcelerator.com/titanium/latest/
 

skipper

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I recently did some work on phonegap + html5. For some applications that's not a bad option at all.
 

thinslicer

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Thanks guys, for those like me who is just getting started and don't have any coding experience and is planning to hire programmers later but at the same time want to publish simple apps on their own to learn some of the important skills besides development such as copywriting, social media, and other marketing skills...what do you guys think we should start on

I am currently researching a 'good' wysiwyg editor and I know good is more like good enough since there will really be no substitution for coding. Im aiming to publish simple apps and learn some marketing and more about the app store and app market before hiring. I know some editors can let you output code to learn along the way or let more experienced programmers jump in and help. Application Craft looks good since you can do wysiwyg and have another developer help you along the way. Tiggzi apparently is great for drag and drop. Both are cloud-based, so updates for your apps are faster.

The key to note about these cross-platform tools and wysiwyg editors is each are better for the kind of app you are interested in making. For example if you want to make a game-based app, corona, marmalade, gamesalad, unity are better, but if you want to make education apps, others like livecode will be better.

Livecode by Runrev which uses a natural-like language looks good for beginners, easy learning curve with a great community for support. Corona is great for game makers, and it uses Lua, which supposedly easier to learn than most languages.

Can someone confirm these comments that I found during my research?

Im thinking about going to games since around 75% of the top grossing apps are games, but it's of course a highly competitive field, and you need a team probably for designing graphics, planning gameplay design, etc. Right now for a beginner like me, Im still trying to decide what is the best direction to head into, seems like some of my ideas already exist in the app store, the market is way more saturated than I thought, probably because of all these tools making the barrier of entry more attractive. Do you guys think I should just forget about learning to publish simple apps on my own with wysiwyg editors to learn marketing skills and just do it big in the beginning and learn as much as possible by reading marketing and hiring books and then just take a risk and shell out money to hire developers and go from there? Anybody in the same boat as me? I love apps and web technologies so I will be with this for a while even if the money is not great too. Another direction is to find a student developer to help at a cheaper cost or a small startup studio.
 
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theag

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This is killer! thank you OP. I've read App Empire. How does lifehacked hold up in comparison?

I recently read lifehacked and found it quite good, despite not being interested in apps. Didnt read app empire so cant compare.
 
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thinslicer

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This is killer! thank you OP. I've read App Empire. How does lifehacked hold up in comparison?

I recently read lifehacked and found it quite good, despite not being interested in apps. Didnt read app empire so cant compare.

I actually haven't read lifehacked yet, but will when I have more time. Like theag mentioned, it's not all about apps but it is marketed to contain some tips and knowledge in it from the author, a successful app developer.

****
-I was thinking of adding a category of FREELANCE DEVELOPERS RECOMMENDATIONS, what do you guys think, I haven't work with any so I can't do it, but if some of you out there who has worked with developing an app with a certain freelance developer and had a good experience, and want to recommend it to other fastlaners, I could start it.
-Or if you guys feel this is more of an INSIDERS thread kind of thing, then I can put that category down, and then your name (person who has recommendations), then interested appreneurs can PM for recommendations, and recommendations will only be given to those PM'ers who are active forum members with good amount of posts, etc.
 

thinslicer

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Thanks for the feedback guys, hope it helps, and if you have any resources you want to add, let me know.

Not sure if this should be under a category, but it should help a great deal. It's an article that interviews app developers/founders regarding their app companies by SecretEntourage (much thanks SE)

How To Build an App – 17 Mini Case Studies
 

jacob

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Thanks for sharing these resources. It is very helpful for I am planning to create a mobile app.
 

Eskil

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Excellent collection of resources. Speed+ for taking the time to put it together.
 
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DrkSide

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Speed+ This is exactly what I needed to move forward with a simple idea that I had earlier tonight!
 

Nick

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This is a great thread, not sure how i missed it. If anyone wants to find more info about app development, feel free to shoot me a pm, i may be able to pinpoint you in the right direction.
 
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thinslicer

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Thanks guys, I have been focusing on my E-commerce website so haven't been able to update any new useful links, but if you guys have suggestions, I will gladly add to the list to help out other fastlaners interested in the app game.
 

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