Comments on: iPhone developers: demand outstrips supply

By: mj » Blog Archive » So why develop for the iPhone

mj » Blog Archive » So why develop for the iPhone — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:39:33 +0000

[...] commented on my earlier post claiming that the cost of a development machine (a Mac) is simply too much to sway him to develop for the iPhone. This mentality ignores the [...]

By: mj

mj — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:29:45 +0000

Your mileage may vary. I’ve never seen a user interface on Windows machines that makes me WANT to use a machine – even though some software is only available for Windows – e.g. mscape.

Bad UI is no excuse. Maybe they’ll do better in Windows 7.

The reason there’s a shortage of developers is that you’ve got a device that sold 6 million in a year and then sold another 10 million in the next 6 months…and it uses the same language and basic frameworks as the Mac – which only had a small number of developers.

If you don’t want to develop for it because the development machine costs $1000, then you must not reckon your apps would make you a profit That’s fair enough. Pangea have had over a million downloads of their games – which start at $5.99 (excluding sales). That’s not bad and certainly worth a couple of thousand dollars for the development machine.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:05:44 +0000

I am a .Net developer and I use a PC etc. I am interested in learning to develop for I devices but this learning seem to be expensive: I was told the development can be done only on Macs. So, this is why there is a shortage of developers for iPhone.

I would not spend 1000+ to get a machine just for that.

By: mj

mj — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:39:02 +0000

a) why would you?
b) there is one crazy bugger who does, but again, why would you?

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:06:35 +0000

Do you need a Mac to develop for the IPhone?
Can we not use a win machine?