Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book
Rate this book
Unleash the App Developer Within!
This first book in the series from Kevin McNeish, award-winning App Developer, highly acclaimed iOS trainer and conference speaker, is specifically designed to teach non-programmers how to create Apps for the iPhone and iPad. Many books designed for the beginning Apple developer assume way too much. In contrast, this book series assumes you know nothing about programming.

This first book is your “easy in” and builds confidence that you can write Apps for the iPhone and iPad. Each chapter and exercise has been reviewed by people like you—with little or no experience in how to make an App. Many sections of the book were rewritten, diagrams were added, and examples improved until all “beta readers” completely understood each key concept.

Up to Date With the Latest Apple Technologies
The information in this book is up to date with the latest iOS technologies including the iPhone 5, iOS 6 and the latest version of Xcode. You will learn about storyboards, scenes, navigation, displaying lists of data, animating transitions between scenes, using maps, and much more.

Includes Step-by-Step Instructional Videos!
There are seven step-by-step instructional videos in which you watch the author create each part of the App. This is great for those who might need some extra help.

Not a "Dumbed Down" Series!
Ultimately, readers will learn everything that is taught in the regular written-for-programmer books. This series simply provides more background information and more thorough explanations for those who haven't had a formal education in software development.

207 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 7, 2012

8 people are currently reading
73 people want to read

About the author

Kevin McNeish

18 books3 followers
Kevin McNeish is author of the new "iOS App Development for Non-Programmers" book series (www.iOSAppsForNonProgrammers.com), winner of the 2012 Publishing Innovation Award. He is also a featured writer and blogger for iPhone Life magazine.

Kevin is also an award-winning App developer, software architect, and well-known software conference speaker in the U.S. and abroad. He has spent much of his career making difficult concepts easy to understand for the uninitiated.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
17 (32%)
4 stars
14 (26%)
3 stars
12 (23%)
2 stars
5 (9%)
1 star
4 (7%)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
6 reviews
October 29, 2012

In iOS App Development, Kevin McNeish attempts to create a book where beginners can learn how to create iPhone and iPad apps.


This book really just works. It provides TONS of interactive graphics, pictures and links to downloads from his site. One thing that really stands out with his book is the simplicity. I have been trying to find a way to learn app development from the VERY beginning, and I haven't found a good one until this. Lorraine Akemann from Moms With Apps agrees with me: "Most of the books I scanned, even the “Dummies” series, assumed a basic knowledge of computer programming even for iOS beginners. What I like about Kevin’s writing is that he doesn’t make any assumptions – he just takes you there – step by step". He even says it in his book: "This book series intends to rectify that by assuming you know nothing about programming" (McNeish III). McNeish has been a iOS and Microsoft .NET developer for several years and decided to share his expertise with people who know nothing about developing. He starts by getting us familiar with the xCode and the iOS ecosystem. Then, he shows us more about adding APIs like Maps and Location services. We do also learn basic coding. This book was successful in teaching me the basics of app developing. This is a "trilogy" of books, the second one is "Flying with Objective-C", which teaches us more about coding and advancing our apps.


I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn developing-programmer or not. I am going to start the second book soon.

Profile Image for Charlie Miller.
78 reviews
February 1, 2013
I am considering this book to use in an iOS Applications Development class that i am currently developing for my Community College. This is a great resource for anyone who has little/no experience with mobile applications development on iOS devices. This book works you through creating a prototype App for an iPhone or iPod Touch. It gives you an introductory to Apple's XCode environment, as well as basic fundamentals for beginning App development. I highly recommend it for folks wanting to dip their toe into the world of iOS App development.
27 reviews2 followers
August 10, 2017
Greta hands on introduction

This book is very easy to work with.
It explains the concepts in a very good way and it makes the person who has never programmed build a prototype app using some of Apple’s iOS technologies.
Profile Image for Quinton.
254 reviews25 followers
August 21, 2019
It's already a little out of date, but I was able to work out where things were still. I was amazed to be able to build an app without touching any code. It is a great primer for getting to know the core concepts of the various pieces and architecture of how iOS apps work.
2 reviews
October 3, 2020
it was a good book overall, just a little bit unclear in some places. I read this a while ago though so maybe it was because of that
Profile Image for Esa Ruoho.
23 reviews8 followers
May 11, 2014
An enjoyable read. Kevin McNeish has started with an encouraging angle for this book - if you've never programmed in your whole life, you can still knock up a prototype for an iOS application and get it running.

Every chapter starts with what you will accomplish by the end of the chapter in question, walking you through step-by-step towards the end result. It would be hard for me to imagine how this could be conducted better, as it really feels like the author is basically holding your hand every step of the way.

It is incredibly encouraging to be able to boot up a prototype of an iOS application with the iOS Simulator and to (slightly kid yourself) into thinking you're going to get there without much fuss and hassle.

In fact, the whole first book in this three-part series has been written so that you do not need to write a single line of code!

The chapters also finish with a video tutorial, showing you how to get to the goal of the chapter. There are lots of images that do their utmost to introduce you to Xcode and to keep you on the same page as the author.

One crucial detail: when I first bought this book on iBooks, it was the iOS6 / Xcode 4(...) version, but Kevin McNeish swiftly updated the book to iOS7 and Xcode 5, once they became available. That's dedication!

Also, the iBook is fully compatible with a first generation iPad.

A thoroughly encouraging and empowering read, covering the basics of creating a Storyboard for your app.
Profile Image for Trudy Nye.
864 reviews12 followers
March 20, 2013
Diving Into iOS is a very clearly written guide for the newbie. Kevin McNeish has made it possible for those of us with little or no programming experience to break into the world of iOS App Development. The Kindle version has links to short videos at the end of each chapter so you are able to see the programming steps you just completed (or tried to complete). It's a brilliant marriage of e-book/video.

There is also a website and a forum associated with this series, and Mr. McNeish answers questions quite promptly. There are two more books in this series that promise to take the reader much further into actual programming language. It is my hope that they are just as user-friendly to the new programmer as this one has been.
Profile Image for Tim Nowotny.
1,287 reviews21 followers
November 25, 2013
A programmer book as I like it.
It is easy to understand, starts really by 0 and you can build up on your knowledge on your own. It even updated on my eReader for the new look and feel.
Profile Image for Arun.
38 reviews1 follower
June 28, 2015
Fun to read

It was nice and easy to read and follow along. Just enough to get your feet wet. Now time to take it further
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.