So you wanna build an iPhone app? With the smartphone’s rise in popularity, who wouldn’t want to scribble some code together and viola – there’s you’re own app ready to be filled with advertising?

While you will need to understand some code to get started, you can get an Ivy League-quality education in building iPhone apps for free, thanks to Stanford. Later this week you’ll be able to start watching a popular Stanford computer science course on developing iPhone apps on – you guessed it – your iPhone.

The course will be distributed, for free, via iTunes U. Don’t have an iPhone? Don’t worry. You can still watch the course on your computer.

Even if you can code and have a brilliant idea for an app, the competition is beyond fierce. According to Apple, the download count from its App Store has passed the 800 million mark.

Online viewers of the Stanford course will see the same lectures as the on-campus students, but will not receive credit for the course (http://cs193p.stanford.edu). Some of the student-developed apps from the fall-quarter class, such as the Chinese-English dictionary Qingwen, are available at the iTunes store.

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