iOS What do you do for a living (while developing applications for iPhone)?

[bengimizrahi]

I am a developer working in a software company. I have only about 2 hours per day that I can invest to iPhone programming. And this time is not enough to get me into the 'zone'.

So I am curious about how you can invest your time into iPhone Programming:
- Are you university students?
- Did anyone of you quit their job so that they can focus on their iPhone project full time?
- Do you hire developers to have your ideas implemented?
- Do you work as a team for your iPhone project or do it alone?
- Do you do iPhone programming in the company you work at?

I would really appreciate if you could answer these questions.

Benji

 

[whooleytoo]

I'm a PC/Mac/RIA developer. Kinda hard to come home after work and start programming again, which explains why my iPhone game is crawling along at the moment..

I'm working solo, but when my first game makes millions p) I can afford to hire some experienced game programmers to take on some of my ideas.

 

[liptonlover]

I'm still in Highschool, and life is extremely busy. But I don't hire anyone, I don't program when I'm supposed to be doing something else, I just do it when I have the chance to. Usually a few undistracted hours a week.

 

[scotty96LSC]

We're building our Filemaker Solution to run on the iPhone. We set aside so much time per week.

 

[lee1210]

If you have 10 hours a week to work on something, you should be able to get quite a bit done. Obviously it won't go as fast as someone working full time on an iPhone application, but I doubt there's too many people that are working full time outside of big companies.

It sounds like if you can't get into the "zone" that just requires some organization and note-taking. When you are winding down each day, just make careful notes on what you're working on and what you need to work on next. Make sure to set achievable goals, and have your tools ready at hand. Be sure when you're ready to go you can get any tools you need available.

Don't worry about when it's going to be finished. Don't set unreasonable expectations. Just keep at it.

Good luck.

-Lee

 

[Sayer]

I must be unique. I come home and work on more programming. I wouldn't do it for a living (finally, yay me!) if I didn't really like it.

It's all about solving problems and that can't just be turned off in me.

I honestly can't even think of starting an iPhone project, unless it's for work, I have so much to do in my actual job right now. I honestly get like 10 job offers a week from companies wanting an iPhone app (most are just silly Windows-centric-ported-to-iPhone ideas or ideas that have no business being on an iPhone aka NOT a COMPUTER).

Besides, talking about what you work on while making an iPhone app will probably fall under the FNDA pretty soon, so I should stop before Apple comes here and takes all my Macs (and iPhone, iPods, AppleTV) away!

 

[jshmrsn]

I'm actually a Junior in High School. I haven't actually dropped out yet, but to give a sense of how much emphasis I'm now placing on iPhone dev...
Last two year's GPA: 3.66
This year: 1.3

The experience for me as an independent developer has been fantastic; I can't stop thinking about the new apps I'm working on during class... High School simply doesn't compare to the level of self education I'm providing myself through iPhone software development.

Anyway thought I'd share my little story. Is there anyone else out there in a similar situation? I know I'm the only one at my school...

-Josh


just fyi the apps I'm developing are listed here: http://www.chalkboardapp.com/licentia/software.html

 

[mccannmarc]

I work for BT as a telecoms network engineer. I do all my development at home and I just program as and when I get chance. Its hard work with having a young family as my development time is limited, but I see iPhone Development as too good an opportunity to miss out on so I make time for it.

I work as part of a team, there are two of us and one is full time in his 3rd year at university at the minute so he's also struggling for time. Our main aim is to get some of our bigger (and hopefully more profitable) project ideas implemented and I can go part time at work and he can get a part time job when he finishes uni. Then we can get more heavily involved with programming!

 

[chbeer]

I am coding for the iphone as hobbyist. I was a software dev. in my former life and now only do BPDs and BPELs all day. So it's nice to come home and do some creative coding-work. But I only have 1-2 Hours a day until my girlfriend comes home. That's not very much... But I make small steps and my app is growing.

 

[mccannmarc]

I'm actually a Junior in High School. I haven't actually dropped out yet, but to give a sense of how much emphasis I'm now placing on iPhone dev...
Last two year's GPA: 3.66
This year: 1.3

The experience for me as an independent developer has been fantastic; I can't stop thinking about the new apps I'm working on during class... High School simply doesn't compare to the level of self education I'm providing myself through iPhone software development.

Anyway thought I'd share my little story. Is there anyone else out there in a similar situation? I know I'm the only one at my school...

-Josh


just fyi the apps I'm developing are listed here: http://www.chalkboardapp.com/licentia/software.html

Well I'm not in that situation anymore but when i was at school (I'm 21 now so it wasnt too long ago ) my schoolwork was completely second best to my programming hobby! I was learning C++ and assembler at the time. Funnily enough just like you I still to this day believe that learning programming helped my education more than classwork did

 

[Pring]

I'm a Senior Software Engineer for a company that provides test and measurement equipment for mobile phone network operators.

I developed my first couple of apps by coming home from work at 1800, eating dinner and relaxing till 2000 then basically working till 0100 or so. Absolutely hellish and not sustainable. Had to take several nights off as it was driving me crazy. (and the girlfriend was ready to kill me too)

It's getting worse now as I have two apps to maintain and am trying to find time to work on a new one!

I don't think there's enough money in it to work full time on an app. What I have considered doing is taking a months holiday, squeezing out some apps and then just maintaining them rather than starting anything new. That would hopefully bring in a nice income stream on the side. For me, it's only ever going to be a secondary income.

 

[bengimizrahi]

Thank you for the responses.

Good to know that I am not alone

 

[jeremy.king]

IT Consultant - I write software in Java (mostly)

Hardest part for me is finding time. Being a Dad and sleep consume most of my non-work hours.

 

[mekopolis]

I am finishing up a Duel Graduate - one in International business, and the other in marketing

I also work part time on the weekend,
but I try to put at least one entire day into Programming, I've been at it for a month now, and have almost finished 3 apps with 10 more in design/development phase

im hoping it will at least pay for my student loans, then i would be happy

 

[mtgred]

I am a business analyst in the capital market industry at Accenture.
Before that I studied computer science and actuarial science.

 

[kage207]

Well, I'm a first year at my University and majoring in Computer Science. My C++ class is very boring since it is exactly like Java but just different words so I can focus on trying to teach myself the Xcode or Objective-C. I made the HelloWorld so far and it's kinda neat to look at what they have laid out for you before you even a program. I'm trying to force myself off the game so I can start learning the code.

So far I've written one outline for a program I want to make and how things will be implemented. So that's a start. I did that during religion class which is what I am in right now. Haha, he's a bit boring but nice guy. Anyways, I have a lot of down time because I'm in class MWF 10-12 and 1-3. So 4 hours there. I have then around 4hours to sit down that day to focus on learning more. Which I haven't started yet, damn XBox... Anyways then T I have class 9-12 and then 1:30-2:20. So lots of time there. But today I have 9-12:50 and then 1:30-2:20. So most of the time I have lots of time to work on my program and teach myself. I just got a MacBook awhile ago and have just installed the iPhone SDK so I'm learning, slowly... I have to focus on my math studies, studying 1-3hours, Calc... Cause I took Pre-Calc my Junior year and don't remember anything. So I have to study hard in that since I'm here on a scholarship.

-Pat

Good luck and work hard. Just do it if you love it. Not for the money.

 

[clalor]

I'm a software engineer that spends the day doing embedded C++ work. Although I work in telecom, we don't do any iPhone app development here at the office. I've been spending time at night and during the weekends getting used to my Mac and wrapping my head around Objective-C and Cocoa before I start designing my first app.

Hopefully, I can make a little money on the side writing apps, at least enough to recoup the investment in my Mac mini.

 

[mccannmarc]

Well, I'm a first year at my University and majoring in Computer Science. My C++ class is very boring since it is exactly like Java but just different words

Take it you haven't wrote anything beyond a basic console application yet if you think C++ is exactly like Java? lol

 

[Sbrocket]

Working on a dual major in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the moment. Yeah, not what you'd probably think of for a developer to be majoring in.

Getting time to work on applications certainly is interesting, to say the least. I just use random down time to get work done with my app, work on updates, reply to users and the like. I wouldn't say I consistently have 2 hours/day by any means, but that doesn't seem to have been a problem so far unless you're planning on doing something big. My one advantage is that I did a lot of work on my app over the summer - plenty of time then - to get the app in for the AppStore launch. I'm not sure how quickly it would have been finished if I was working on it mostly during the semester.

 

[erikko]

I'm a software engineer one year out of college with a degree in Aerospace Engineering, and right now it's all C++ and Fortran at work (yes, Fortran). I try to spend 2-3 hours (or more if I can) every evening on this stuff, and whatever time I have left on Saturday and Sunday when I'm not watching football or going out. So far for the past month I've been doing tutorials from a number of books and small programs no one would buy, just to become familiar with everything. And at other times, like when I'm taking a break, I'll brainstorm ideas and write psedocode and "pseudo-classes". I will dedicate myself full time only if I get a level of success on par with my current job, or at least enough to warrant working part time. I absolutely expect to be successful...

 

[cpatch]

I'm a senior software developer for a Fortune 100 company with 30 years of software design experience. During the day I code in Java and Javascript, at night after my daughter's asleep I work on apps for the iPhone (mainly because my day work is monotonous at the moment and I need something to keep the creative juices flowing). I'd love to design for the iPhone full time but as the App Store grows and the competition increases it just doesn't look feasible.

 

[TonyHoyle]

Software developer for 15 years (technically a manager now but the advantage of a small company is I can keep coding), mostly in C++ these days... I spend so much time on projects at work I haven't got a lot of time for anything like iphone development... but I put an hour in every now and then.

 

[hchung]

I've been a full-time software developer for about 2 years now, prior to that, QA. I've been toying and learning about the iPhone on my own time since it'd be a potential conflict of interest with my employer, which does Mac and Windows software.

Since it's not a full-time thing for me, I work on it alone. One thing I did have to do was clear it with legal that my apps are my own thing before posting on the App Store though.

 

[jstanier]

I'm doing a PhD in Computer Science, working on some new intermediate representations in compilers. I don't get that much time in the week to do iPhone stuff any more, really. I won't be starting anything new for a while.

 

[fat phil]

Game designer / animator of 19 years, now with my own small games studio. I've been writing tools (exporters and stuff) for the past few years - never thought I'd bother writing full games myself simply because I see very talented programmers when I look around me at work.

iPhone doesn't sit in our sphere though, so I'm doing it all solo for the first time... come home and code till the wife nags me to get some sleep. Love it, reminds me of the 80's and makes me wish I'd taken programming more seriously than art back then. At least I have the wisdom of experienced peers around me to poke for information (when they're not sneering at the mention of iPhone, sadly).