Getting an App developed - a few questions

Only one of your questions can actually be answered.

To protect your idea so that a developer doesn't run off with it you have the developer sign a NDA, Non Disclosure Agreement. Then you are protecting your idea legally.

An app can be done in a day. It can take a year.

I'd recommend you to create a story board for your app. draw out every single screen, doesn't have to be pretty. Draw out every button and just a very brief description of what it does. This will greatly help your chosen dev to make a more accurate time estimate.

If your app requite artwork you will need to source that as well. Its quite uncommon for a programmer to also be able to come up with good artwork.

 

To calculate the estimation for project, you need to describe it in details, and ask experiences developers about estimation. The price really can differ. The another addition to cost is UI and design, usually programmers themselves cannot do that part of work efficiently.

You should sign the agreement with developer, that you will hold rights for source code. However, at the moment the main problem is not to develop an application, the problem is to sell it
To have access to sources, you can run SVN or other version control system on your own server, and force developer to upload his changes there.

 

An app can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars (USD) for a crappy simple app to over a quarter million for a full featured professional grade app. If you don't have a solid spec, it's almost impossible to estimate the exact amount. It might cost you $20k to just mock up the idea enough to get a better estimate of the final amount.

You might be able to protect your idea by talking to a IP/patent attorney. But most iOS developers hear far far too many "great app ideas" to be likely to run off with any one in particular, such as yours.

 

Plus they probably have their own great ideas which they would rather do than worry about yours. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Implementation is what is worth the money. Don't skimp on development / design costs.

 

I'm having the opposite. i have knowledge of the coding, but i'm all out of ideas. Allways staring dead blank at my screen.. What to code now

 

Agreed - getting a programmer to write the code is only one piece of the puzzle. A lot has to be invested in research and other areas such as UI design. And by 'a lot' I mean time as well as money...

RTP.