Is there a better way?

betterway.m

// Original
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {	

	static NSString *firstLaunchKey = @"firstLaunch";

	// Register default defaults
	NSUserDefaults *userDefaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
	NSDictionary *defaultDefaults = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys:
									 [NSNumber numberWithBool:YES], firstLaunchKey,
									 nil];
	[userDefaults registerDefaults:defaultDefaults];
	[defaultDefaults release];
	
	// First launch
	if ([userDefaults firstLaunchKey] == YES) {
		// Do first launch stuff here
		[userDefaults setBool:NO firstLaunchKey];
	}
	
	// Finish initializing...
}

// One solution:
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {	

	if ([[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] boolForKey:@"hasLaunched"] == NO) {
		// First launch, do stuff...
		[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setBool:YES forKey:@"hasLaunched"];
	}
}

According to the docs, the contents of the registration domain are not written to disk; you need to call this method (registerDefaults:) each time your application starts.

You can place a plist file in the application's Resources directory and call registerDefaults: with the contents that you read in from that file.

[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] registerDefaults:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"Defaults" ofType:@"plist"]]];