Apps please help a noob out

[kelvinblade]

i'm recently out of a job and haven't been able to find a new job.
i'm thinking of learning to write apps for a living.
i don't really have any programming background but i am a quick learner.
i have some questions and would really really appreciate if you guys can help me out a bit.

1) i've read that the best way to go about learning to write android apps is to learn java first. is that true? how steep of a learning curve is it?

2) i've looked into MIT App Inventor, Illumination software creator and PhoneGap which uses javascript and html. How are they compared to the traditional way of coding using Eclipse? What are the limitations of each and which ones do professionals use?

3) do you guys think it's better to start off taking projects and writing apps for others before starting to write my own apps since without a killer app, its hard to get much revenue from ads. i've also been told that ios app makes more in terms of revenue than android apps, is that true?

i actually have a ton more questsions but if you can help me with these first and get my started, it would be great. thank you all so much in advance.

 

[kohad]

Hi, I am new here but I'll try to address your questions.

1) Yeah, you need to know Java, and understand Object Oriented Programming to essentially work with Android. You don't have to learn java for other platforms. For example, iOS apps are made in Objective C. There are a lot of resources on the web and you can google the programming language to get going.

2) On PhoneGap etc.. PhoneGap and similar technologies usually serve as a middleware for your applications so that you can publish your content on multiple devices writing one piece of code. they have their pros and cons. If you use phonegap, you won't need to learn java, or objective c and anything you write you would be able to publish to ios or android. I am not familiar with them,so you would need to read about their cons etc your self.

3) This is up to you. But if you make apps for others, they normally require you to know what you're doing. Unless they take you on board knowing you know nothing. About how much apps make on differing platforms, depends on how you market and get people using it. Not too sure. Some people have done studies on it etc.

In the end, google is your best friend. Google the simple stuff. When you get stuck, look on blogs, stackoverflow, forums etc.

Goodluck!