# How do iPhone apps work for the coders? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 28, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-iphone-apps-work-for-the-coders/507997 "2009-08-28T03:53:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-iphone-apps-work-for-the-coders/507997/1 "2009-08-28T03:53:55Z")
—In other words, do they post the apps for you and pay you periodically for every time that app is bought? (minus their cut.) Or does it work some other way? I also would like to know what is the difference, from the coders’ end, between web-based and native apps? (I understand the intrinsic difference – a native app is analogous to buying a pc game, and a web app is like playing a flash game online. Right?) I am asking because I have a couple of good ideas for iPhone apps. (anybody want to code them for me, & split the money?) ---
**Author:** ![sharding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@sharding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharding)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-iphone-apps-work-for-the-coders/507997/2 "2009-08-28T04:58:53Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > —In other words, do they post the apps for you and pay you periodically for every time that app is bought? (minus their cut) Yes. > [@](#): > > I also would like to know what is the difference, from the coders’ end, between web-based and native apps? Completely different. Different languages, different libraries, different development environments, etc. There’s full info on all of this at [iOS - Apple Developer](http://developer.apple.com/iphone) ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-iphone-apps-work-for-the-coders/507997/3 "2009-08-28T15:38:45Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > I am asking because I have a couple of good ideas for iPhone apps. (anybody want to code them for me, & split the money?) If you find someone, let me know. I’ve had a few ideas as well and no time or inclination to learn to develop them. From what I can tell, the apps are in such high demand that developers will only pick up projects they think will make a decent amount of money. On the other hand, most developers aren’t making that much off of them either. ---
**Author:** ![Recliner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a88e57/32.png) [@Recliner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recliner)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-iphone-apps-work-for-the-coders/507997/4 "2009-08-30T03:33:38Z")
I’m an iPhone developer. If you’re interested in talking about ideas, send me a msg. The native applications are done on in Objective-C, which you may not be familiar with if you aren’t a Mac developer; I had to learn it specifically to do iPhone programming, since I’d never done anything Apple-related before. There’s a fairly complicated system of permissions and certificates you have to use to “hook up” a device (an iPhone or an iPod Touch, which is basically an iPhone without the phone) to the development environment. If anyone was curious about anything else involved, I could probably talk your ear off about this 😉