Why wouldn't you dream up your own simple app and do that? Nothing makes a portfolio more than a published app. Or are you trying to avoid the actual publishing side and just want the experience of app creation?
I would say that the act of publishing an app is just as important an experience as writing the code.
I realised after I posted that I could have explained this better.
To me at least, working to someone else's plan gives me a 'better' experience for future work. This way I'm not likely to artificially limit myself and drop features here & there because I don't feel like doing them. It will also give me more satisfaction to see a real useful app out there, than a flashy toy I might create to show off. I have some ideas of my own but that's all they are at the moment. And finally, someone else will get something useful out of it too.
And I do have a published app on the app store (should have mentioned that too!). It's an early experiment with PhoneGap and so not the best example of my skills however.
If you're looking to do this as a career, nothing beats an app you made yourself. I would give it much more weight in deciding whether to choose you as a developer than work you did for someone else. I don't know how much work you did on that other project, but I know with your own app you not only did it all, but you've shown me you can execute things on your own time without me bugging you.
I suggest doing another one of your own apps, only make it kick-ass this time. Not necessarily in terms of have tons of functionality, but make it spiffy in the looks department and how snappy it is. A good suggestion would be an app that both solves a problem you have and shows off your skills.
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Why wouldn't you dream up your own simple app and do that? Nothing makes a portfolio more than a published app. Or are you trying to avoid the actual publishing side and just want the experience of app creation?
I would say that the act of publishing an app is just as important an experience as writing the code.
I realised after I posted that I could have explained this better.
To me at least, working to someone else's plan gives me a 'better' experience for future work. This way I'm not likely to artificially limit myself and drop features here & there because I don't feel like doing them. It will also give me more satisfaction to see a real useful app out there, than a flashy toy I might create to show off. I have some ideas of my own but that's all they are at the moment. And finally, someone else will get something useful out of it too.
And I do have a published app on the app store (should have mentioned that too!). It's an early experiment with PhoneGap and so not the best example of my skills however.
If you're looking to do this as a career, nothing beats an app you made yourself. I would give it much more weight in deciding whether to choose you as a developer than work you did for someone else. I don't know how much work you did on that other project, but I know with your own app you not only did it all, but you've shown me you can execute things on your own time without me bugging you. I suggest doing another one of your own apps, only make it kick-ass this time. Not necessarily in terms of have tons of functionality, but make it spiffy in the looks department and how snappy it is. A good suggestion would be an app that both solves a problem you have and shows off your skills.