Today, if you intend to make a full time income, it's insufficient to simply have a job. You need at the very least 2 or 3 different resources of income to make sure that you are able to pay all your bills in case something unfortunate happens. Technology has evolved so much that in recent years many people are finding another method to earn money: they develop mobile applications. Many entrepreneurs have made a name for themselves by developing mobile apps, and if you're enthusiastic about learning how to produce mobile apps yourself, keep reading this article.

Mobile app development is really a rapidly growing industry because folks are finding more approaches to earn money through their smartphones. Each day the number of active users keeps growing. Here are a few numbers that will illustrate just how large the is becoming:

- How many smartphone users worldwide is expected to achieve 1 billion in 2014 ( source ).

- Based on statistics there have been nearly 35 million iPhone developers by December 2010 ( source ). This figure shows an increase of 25% over the last year's figures!

If you want to develop mobile apps then you'll need several things before you start. This is true of any type of development, nevertheless, you especially need these:

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

- A computer – Needless to say! 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 sufficient then you might be able to produce an application on Linux as well.

- A smartphone – It's not essential for developing apps, but it will surely help because you can test them on your device. If you don't have a smartphone then you may always make use of a friend's or a family group member's device.

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

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