Today, if you wish to make a living, it's not enough to simply have a job. You'll need at least 2 or 3 different sourced elements of income to ensure that you can pay your entire bills in the event something unfortunate happens. Technology has evolved so much that in the past few years lots of people have found 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 thinking about learning how to develop mobile apps yourself, keep looking over this article.

Mobile app development is a rapidly growing industry because individuals are finding more ways to earn money through their smartphones. Each and every day how many active users keeps growing. Here are a few numbers which will illustrate just how big the industry is becoming:

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

- In accordance with statistics there were nearly 35 million iPhone developers as of December 2010 ( source ). This figure shows an increase of 25% over the previous year's figures!

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

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

- Some type of computer – Of course! Ideally it should be a laptop/netbook that runs Windows or Mac OSX because most computers nowadays run one of these operating systems. However, if your skills are sufficient then you may be able to produce an app on Linux as well.

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

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

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