The overwhelming appeal of self-creating your own iPhone app (and soon for Android)

isites-fir When I heard about AppMakr last week, a website that lets you create your own iPhone app for $199, I thought, wow! This is getting very affordable – anyone can now create an iPhone app in literally a few clicks, at a relatively low cost.

But then I heard about iSites – a website where you can create an iPhone app for just $25. I thought, wow x 2!

Imagine: with iSites, you can create an iPhone app from just about any content you have an RSS feed for, that’s custom-made by you from filling in  a few fields and choosing colours, etc, with your own branding if you wish from artwork you upload during the creation process. The iSites blog has some great tips and advice to help you create your app.

And that’s not all: once you’ve created your app, iSites vets it; if they approve it, they will then submit it to Apple for approval and subsequent inclusion in the iTunes App Store.

All for $25. And the whole process could be as quick as a few days, iSites say on their website.

So, as I mentioned briefly in FIR #519 last Thursday,  I created an iPhone app for FIR, the podcast I co-host twice a week with my friend Shel Holtz. Actually, the app will give you access to all the podcasts that Shel and I do, all six of them under the FIR brand. Terrific value for money with our free app!

The trouble is, I’m not sure when we’ll see the app. Creating your own app for $25 is a pretty compelling proposition, a fact which I’m one of only a large many to realize. The closest I am at the moment to seeing what the app might look like is the design mock-up on iSites (if you click on the image snip above, you see the whole thing).

iSites has been overwhelmed, in fact, with the website painfully slow and not accessible at all from time to time.

An email yesterday from the company gives a clear indicator of just how popular their new service is:

[…] Currently we have been inundated with new app requests, and that requires us to carefully plan how we proceed to give Apple your new apps. […] we have designed a batching system that will forward apps gradually and maintain great quality control. We anticipate releasing 50 – 75 quality reviewed apps each day. In general, the order in which the app was submitted will determine which batch your app is placed.

So a flood of new apps is heading for the App Store approval process. I hope Apple has geared up for that.

But what a terrific service concept this is. DIY iPhone apps that are very easy to create at an affordable cost. Imagine the possibilities for anyone, personal or business. And not only iPhone – iSites say an app you create for the iPhone will also be converted by iSites for Android (think Google Nexus One) in February.

I’m patiently awaiting the next step which I hope will be Apple’s approval and the FIR app’s availability in the App Store.

Stay tuned, as it were.

Neville Hobson

Social Strategist, Communicator, Writer, and Podcaster with a curiosity for tech and how people use it. Believer in an Internet for everyone. Early adopter (and leaver) and experimenter with social media. Occasional test pilot of shiny new objects. Avid tea drinker.

  9. Bryan Person

    What a great service from iSites, huh? Thanks for sharing, Neville. Previous low-cost iPhone-app sites also included a monthly charge for keeping the app active, but I’m not seeing the requirement from iSites.

    You’re right about the overload of applications submitted, though. Here’s the message that’s on the site right now:

    “Currently we have been inundated with new app requests. Hence we have decided to temporarily stop activating and accepting payments for new apps until all currently paid apps are submitted to Apple for final review. Please note that you can continue to create new apps and publish – but will not be able to activate and submit it for review.”

  14. Collin Willardson

    Neville,
    Great post. I enjoyed reading about creating iPhone apps. So if i read correctly, you make the app, but it does not guarantee that it will make it to the iTunes store, right? Do you think creating an iphone app for an online branding and marketing company would be good for business?

  21. Jenny Blumberg

    TapLynx (http://taplynx.com) does the trick too. The difference is that you as a developer have control over the app, and are responsible for the submittal process. Apps are made by simply setting key value pairs in a configuration file. Just wanted to make sure you knew about it ;-)

  24. Photo Restore

    iPhone is very widely used now a days, it is our requirement to have iPhone application. Your blog gives information that speaks and publish make easy by using iPhone, video on an iPhone is faster than 12 seconds by television.

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