Has anyone here developed an IPhone application?

[Celebration]

I have an idea for one. It might sound silly to people here but I think there is a market for it. It involves playing one or more of five slideshows that I already have made, about six minutes each, to serve a particular purpose.

Given that I already have the slideshows in MPEG-1 format, how difficult would this be for me to learn the IPhone software to turn it into an application?

Or, if I hire someone to do it for me, how much would it cost (this should be really simple).

Any recommendations on how to get started? Yes, I realize I have to pay Apple $99.00 a year plus 30%.

I don't even have an Iphone, but I have a friend who has one, and she is going to help me with this project. She's going to test it, too, to make sure that it works like it is supposed to work first.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

1. You could do it yourself

If you have a technical bent: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/

But, as a software developer, I personally wouldn't touch Apple with a ten foot pole. Apple has a terrible reputation for screwing developers, and their design requirements are ridiculous. My suggestion would be to go for something more open source - maybe the new Droid platform?

[DaveJ]

2. Wow a friends just asked me to create an app yesterday...

It would be so cool to hear from an iPhone developer! I saw a job ad once that payed them like $75/hr for a short term contract of a few months. Personally I would also lean toward developing on Androids open source framework, even though I'm not a big fan of Apple or Google.

I'm curious, does anyone know if you have to pay anyone to create an app for Android? If not I'd find a market with Android OS (free) then you can make it for Apple's phone (and pay Apple for ?).