Today, if you want to make a living, it's insufficient to simply have a job. You will need at the least 2 or 3 different sourced elements of income to ensure that you can pay all your bills in case something unfortunate happens. Technology has evolved so much that in the past few years lots of people have discovered another way to earn money: they develop mobile applications. Many entrepreneurs have made a term for themselves by developing mobile apps, and if you're interested in learning how to develop mobile apps yourself, keep looking over this article.

Mobile app development is just a rapidly growing industry because people are finding more approaches to earn money through their smartphones. Each and every day the amount of active users keeps growing. Here are some numbers that'll illustrate just how big the industry is now:

- The amount of smartphone users worldwide is expected to attain 1 billion in 2014 ( source ).

- According to statistics there were nearly 35 million iPhone developers at the time of December 2010 ( source ). This figure shows an increase of 25% over the prior year's figures!

If you wish to develop mobile apps then you'll need several things one which just start. This will additionally apply to any kind of development, but you especially need these:

- Skills and knowledge – You'll need to know how to code, and you'll also need to learn about design concepts like UX (User Experience) and HCI (Human Computer Interaction).

- A computer – Obviously! Ideally it should be a laptop/netbook that runs Windows or Mac OSX because most computers nowadays run one of these brilliant operating systems. However, if your skills are good enough then you may be able to produce an application on Linux as well.

- A smartphone – It's not necessary for developing apps, but it will certainly help since you can test them on your device. In the event that you don't have a smartphone then you could always work with a friend's or a family group member's device.

- An IDE – A pc software development kit (or IDE - Integrated Development Environment) is necessary to generate applications for Android, iOS and Windows Phone platforms. Popular IDEs include Xcode , Eclipse and Deniz Guney Visual Studio.

- The developer license – You are able to develop apps without paying anything, but if you intend to publish them on app stores then you'll need to cover the annual fee which is currently $99 for Apple App Store and Google Play Developer Console. Several payment methods are available, including bank cards, PayPal and wire transfer from your bank account.