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 have downloaded Titanium for Windows platform. After installing correctly... I found that it needs iOS SDK.. So from where should i get iOS SDK. Is Development of iOS possible in Windows platform..?? What are the steps for making my Hello World Example to run in Titanium on Windows platform for iOS.
I have refered some of the previous post like:
Windows 7 Development Platform or
iOS and Android development on Windows
But still not able to get exact steps for making my example to run...??
No its not possible. You need to install Titanium on MAC then you will be able to develop applications for iPhone and Android.
Titanium doesn't creates an iOS app, it creates the Xcode project... so you must have a Mac, sorry!
It is not possible to develop iOS applications on a Windows machine (except for Adobe AIR for iOS applications). The SDK only works on a Mac.
If you are interested in Adobe AIR, see some examples here:
http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplayer/2011/06/adobe-air-2-7-now-available-ios-apps-4x-faster.html
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've seen conflicting information on this. If I'm using RhoHub (Rhodes) to build an iPhone application, do I need to have a Mac in front of me or use their SDK with some kind of virtualized trickery? Or does Rhodes include a native Windows solution for testing/deployment?
I'm currently in a Windows XP environment.
You would need a Mac. The documentation states that:
iPhone versions of Rhodes apps need to
be built on Mac machines.
Additional Prerequisites for
iPhone are:
Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or greater (Snow Leopard)
the iPhone SDK installed (Apple only lets you submit apps for 3.0 or
higher, so that is also required for
Rhodes, starting with Rhodes 1.2)
the XCode IDE(highly recommended but not actually required)
Refer to this document: http://wiki.rhomobile.com//index.php?title=Building_Rhodes_on_Supported_Platforms#Build_Application_with_XCode
It looks like iPhone app development is now possible in Windows.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/rhomobile-brings-iphone-app-dev-windows-pcs-100?source=footer
Hi folks can any one please let me know , How to develop Iphone Applications on Windows Platform(Xp, Vista).if so
i have Windows System with XP OS
How to install the software
'what is the software name and
please let me know the Blogs and Free Downloads for Trail Versions
Thank in advance
Jagadeesh
It is not possible, and if it is possible, it is not worth your effort. Developing for the iPhone is only supported on Mac OS X through the Apple Xcode Developer Tools and Official iPhone SDK. While there are alternative toolchains out there (I don't know how good those are), you will almost certainly not be able to distribute your application to the App Store if you use those build tools. In addition, trying to setup your own cross-compiler environment can be quite painful. If you already don't care whether or not your application makes it into the App Store, then I suggest (from a purely technical standpoint) you buy a copy of Mac OS X Snow Leopard for $30 and violate the Apple EULA by installing it in a copy of VirtualBox on your Windows XP machine. You can then download and install the official Xcode developer tools and iPhone SDK in your virtual environment.
If you truly want to develop for the iPhone or have made the right ethical choice to not violate Apple's EULA, then I suggest you get yourself a used or refurbished Mac to develop on, or splurge for a new Mac laptop.
Take a look at the WiSDK project. Anyway it is under development and you need to register at beta tester if you want to try it. Note that this project is 100% unofficial.