Chapter 11. Submitting your app
This chapter covers
- Packaging your application for distribution on Android
- Packaging your application for distribution on iOS
- Becoming fabulously rich from app sales (or not)
Like every proud parent, there comes a day when your little app is all grown up (and properly debugged!) and ready to be shared with the world. Releasing an application for sale, or for free, to the mobile markets follows a generally similar path for all platforms:
- You must create a release version of your application. This is an application that is signed using a password. You can think of this as a way of saying that this application belongs to you and you only.
- You submit your application to the store. This typically requires you to write up descriptions for the application and create screenshots of it running. You can, and possibly should, think of this a bit like an ad campaign for your application. You’ll want to describe your app in the best way possible. You’ll want to take screenshots that show off your app in the best light.
At this point, the paths diverge.
Android’s market allows anyone to publish anything (within reason; some types of applications are illegal). Once you’ve signed your application and released it to the market, anyone can download it.