How complicated is android/iphone application Development?
It depends completely on what the app does. Apps range for very simple to very complex. Still, there are fundamental design and programming principles you need to understand no matter what -- in particular human interface guideline standards, graphics standards, content standards, and memory management. These take some time to master, but if you create a simple app that is based completely on template/sample apps then most of these principles are taken care of for you. > How hard is it actually? Designing, developing, and marketing a successful app is not easy, it requires skill and experience like anything. > I have heard of kids as young as 9 years old doing it. True? Fake? Sure... anybody can make a simple app like I said. A 9 year old certainly had help from somebody to get started with the dev environment and distribute the app. Just setting up the iOS plist or Android Manifest file and encryption signing the app package for distribution, while not really complicated, takes even an experience developer a couple tries to get right. A child would not be able to do it without guidance. > I can understand HTML and CSS. C\Java\Objective-C programming is quite a bit more complicated than HTML/CSS. Maybe you should start with developing a mobile web app, building on the skills you already have. JavaScript and PHP scripting (which are used in web apps) are good stepping stones to real programming. > for your average joe brain, how hard is it going to be for me to learn Not hard to make a simple app, but it will be harder to make a useful app and quite difficult to develop a game. All except for the very very simplest games (ie. multiple choice trivia) will require a lot of graphics programming. You'll need to know how to really code in iOS/Android graphics libraries, OpenGL ES, or an engine handling these libraries.
Is iPhone Dev secrets a scam?
Total scam. There are plenty of free resources out there for iPhone development, and lots of free tools as well. Save your $99 for your Apple developer license (needed to publish to the Apple App Store). I guarantee you won't learn anything useful that you can't learn for free if you buy this crap. Chances are he's just pointing to well-known tools to make iPhone app development easier. Here they are: Phone Gap: This tools takes what is basically a web page developed using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and wraps it in a native iPhone browser wrapper that makes it an actual app you can put in the app store. Appcelerator Titanium: Also a very popular tool that helps you develop and package iPhone and Android apps. You use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as well, but it goes a few steps further and allows you to include native user interface elements, and it also rewrites your code into a native app. Corona: This is meant for programmers with a bit more experience, but there are beginner resources on their site. This tool helps you build 3D games and more high-end apps. Stanford University has posted their iPhone development classes free on iTunes U. There is also Apple's own iPhone development resources. Anyone can learn to write an iPhone app in a matter of hours. Just how complex you want to get is up to you.