Today, if you want to make a living, it's inadequate to simply have a job. You'll need at the least 2 or 3 different resources of income to ensure you can pay all your bills just in case something unfortunate happens. Technology has evolved so much that in the past few years lots of people have found 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 enthusiastic about learning how to develop mobile apps yourself, keep reading this article.

Mobile app development is just a rapidly growing industry because folks are finding more methods to earn money through their smartphones. Every single day the number of active users keeps growing. Here are some numbers that may illustrate just how large a has become:

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

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

If you want to develop mobile apps then you'll need several things one which just start. This will also apply to almost any development, but you especially need the next:

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

- A pc – Needless to say! Ideally it must be a laptop/netbook that runs Windows or Mac OSX since most computers nowadays run one of these operating systems. However, if your skills are good enough then you could be able to develop a software on Linux as well.

- A smartphone – It's not required for developing apps, nonetheless it will definitely help since 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 software development kit (or IDE - Integrated Development Environment) is necessary to produce applications for Android, iOS and Windows Phone platforms. Popular IDEs include Xcode , Eclipse and Visual Studio.

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