I was reading some sort of article stating you need Mac OS X to develop iPhone apps.
Is there really such a restriction?
Can't you just download the SDK (and the iOS developer program) IDE to Windows?
Yes, you do need Mac OS X for that. Xcode (SDK) will only work on Mac OS X.
However, if the legal part for you is not really important you can install Mac OS X on your normal PC. Just google "Hackintosh".
You don't need an actual Mac, just Mac OSX. If you don't feel like buying a mac than you can get a hold of the image of Mac OSX and install it onto your PC using Virtual Machine software. I use VMWare to run MacOSX from my Windows 7 x64 machine. VM's are a great way to go, the driers can take a bit to setup, but once everything is working it's perfect. VM's even support ethernet so from within the VM you can browse the web, download mac apps. Install things like XCode or GameSalad. I suggest researching how to use Virtual Machines.
One near-solution is to run OS X in a Virtual Machine on a Windows platform.
You're then developing on XCode on OS X, in a VM on Windows.
This way, you don't have to buy a Mac, or dedicate the hardware to a "Hackintosh".
Of course, this may not be legal by the license terms; I'm only speaking about the technical possibility.
You absolutely need Intel Macintosh hardware to develop iOS apps. The iOS SDK requires Xcode and Xcode only runs on Macintosh machines. I think that any Intel Mac will work, but with how fast things are changing a newer machine will get you longer time before you are forced to upgrade the machine.
Nope, you need an Intel-based Mac to develop apps for iOS. There is no iOS SDK for Windows.
That being said, there might be a way to use something like PhoneGap to develop your app "elsewhere" and then create a suitable package for iOS as well as other mobile platform. I am not familiar enough with PhoneGap and similar tools to know about this angle with any more certainty though.
You can't, there is no iOS SDK for Windows, it only has a Mac version. However, there are various emulators for Mac out there that you can try to install onto Windows. I've tried this before and it did work, however the performance was really poor. If you really wanted to do iOS development. I would strongly suggest you to actually purchase a Mac.
One year later...
I am not familiar with the prerequisites for developing native iOS apps, but wanted to add the possibility of creating a hybrid mobile application. Usually even then one needs the native tools and SDKs for building the wrapper application. But PhoneGap provide a cloud-based build service, which seems to do the job:
"What about developer accounts and SDKs? Do I need to set those up
before starting with PhoneGap Build?
No! But you might want to install some of the SDK emulators if you
don’t own a particular device that you want to test a build for."
Source: PhoneGap Build service
I have not tested the service myself. Just wanted to give an additional path to consider.
To be clear for iPhone apps development required Mac Computers. Xcode and iOS SDK to lead through the app development.Objective-C is the programming language which is most required for iOS app development to build apps. And to be frank, there is a difference between iOS and OS X. iOS and OS X share more framework. So porting app works from OS X to iOS is possible with a little work. If you are a cocoa developer you would be adapt to these frameworks easier.
Check for more information: developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Miscellaneous/Conceptual/iPhoneOSTechOverview/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007898
You can just install MacOS X on windows platform with the help of VMWare which you can use both of operating systems simultaneously side by side.
If you try develop iOS app with cordova like tools, you can simply build with the required SDK and compile it as iOS app then test it on your iPhone or any virtual emulators.
So this is an old question but also the first to appear for me in Google and I finally found a legal way. In 2020 you can go with MacInCloud, costs one dollar an hour for a basic plan. You can code everything elsewhere and then just use the cloud service to deploy the final steps in Xcode. Don't know about installing on your own ipad for testing, haven't gotten there yet.
Yes, you´re gonna need a MacBook or alike to develop for iOS. In my opinion, one of the biggest problems of developing apps for iOS is that you regularly have to buy a new MacBook (or another Mac based technology computer), since over time the most current version available of xCode for your already recently outdated OS X becomes incompatible with the newest iOS.
I know that I can install Corona in a windows machine (as I just did), but will it be possible to sell the app I'm going to make at the app store? Moreover, if Corona is just for Mac, can I install a virtual machine on my PC so I can fake a Mac environment to make it work?
CoronaSDK works for iPhone development on Windows and you can sell apps on the appstore without a mac. All you need is an iOS developer account and Corona. Corona will compile your application in the cloud, you don't need a mac or Xcode like you would using other iPhone dev tools.
No, you must have a Mac to build for iOS.
Per the Corona Website:
"The Corona SDK on Windows only supports building for Android."
"The Corona SDK on Mac supports building for both iOS and Android."
See Corona's Website
I am an Android Developer. I want to get into iPhone development as well.
As mentioned in many sites, to develop an iPhone/iPad application we need a mac with Xcode as an IDE.
Is there a way to develop, build and test an iPhone application on Windows machine.
I came to know that DragonFire SDK is one of the option to do that.
But please guide me through the installation steps and steps to be followed to set up Dragon Fire SDK.
and if possible provide some links where I can find some info on how to start writing iPhone application on Windows.
You can't developer iPhone app on windows in the for the native SDk (read Objective-C) you can use HTML apps and developer them on windows. Or use MonoTOuch (which will need to build the app on a mac).
And what is the problem with the Dragon Fire SDk, all the information you need is on there site.
I have installed Mono and MonoDevelop in Windows and trying to create an application for iPhone but I am not able to see iPhone while creating my solution. Can anyone guide me how to create an application for iPhone in MonoDevelop installed in Windows.
Am I missing something or I need to install some more things to see the iPhone in Solution.
Thanks,
-Ankit
You can't do it on Windows unfortunately. You need a Mac with XCode tools installed, and the iPhone SDK from Apple.
MonoDevelop with the iPhone development tools installed on a Mac will allow you to create MonoTouch apps.
Have a read over http://monotouch.net/Documentation/Installation for details on requirements.
On the apple website I can only see offered the iPhone sdk4 which indicates it will only operate on OSX10.6/Snow Leopard. Is this the case? And if so, where can I get the previous sdks so that I can work on my computer with OSX10.4?
There isn't a version of the iPhone SDK which works with Tiger. You also need an Intel Macintosh. You can still dowload the old (mac) SDK but it won't allow you to develop for iPhone, only Mac.