Do you need Mac OS X to develop iPhone apps?

Question

I was reading some sort of article stating you need Mac OS X to develop iPhone apps. is there really such as restrictions?

Can\'t you just download the SDK (and the

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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".

Answer 5

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