Do I need to buy Iphone for Iphone development?

Question

Do I need to buy Iphone to develop Iphone applications on MacBook Pro? Or is Iphone SDK for the job?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Technically no, but obviously it would be handy.

Xcode provides an iPhone simulator that can handle most testing (but without support for accelerometer or microphone).

All in all, if you plan on doing iPhone development seriously - get an iPhone.

Answer 2

从技术上讲，您可以将模拟器与 SDK 一起使用，但由于细微的差异，您确实需要一些原始设备进行测试。

Answer 3

The iPod touch does a great job for testing apps on a real device. Its performances are very closed to the iPhone and it is much cheaper.

Answer 4

Technically no, unless you building apps related to accelerometer, microphone, sms or auto calling applications. The SDK comes with the iPhone simulator which is more than handy

Answer 5

You can use the Xcode iPhone simulator as well as the iPad simulator to test your code, all of which is free. The only issue will be accessing certain filemanagement which cannot be debugged on a simulator. However, you must have a computer running on Mac OS X and a valid Apple ID to download Xcode. Finally, in order to submit Apps into the App Store, you must buy a $100 developer's license with Apple.

Hope that help! And iPhone development is a ton of fun :)

Thommy

Answer 6

I highly recommend to get the device you're developing for. Since some issues will only will only come up by really using your app as intended.

The touchscreen and it's behavior for example can't really be testet in the simulator. If you want to do more than the next "Fart App" you should invest the money in at least one actuel iOS device.

Answer 7

I will speak from personal experience with a financial prespective

1. Can you afford it or is the short term compensation from the work going to cover the cost? The latest models are pretty expensive, so I would suggest looking for good deals on models that are a couple of years old. When I say short term, I mean 3 years or less. Because after that, there is a good chance that you are going to need to buy a newer model to take advantage of the SDK features available at that time.

2. Even if you can afford it do you need it immediately? Are you soon going to be developing features that are completely dependent on hardware and impossible with a simulator ? If no please push the purchase further down the line, by which time you would have made some money (or not) and you can buy a newer model.

Having a latest device gives you the freedom to try out and build apps using the latest SDK features that Apple rolls out, so you can stay ahead in the game. On the flip side, it would be good for development only as long as at least one of the apps that you are developing for runs the highest version of iOS supported by the device at any particular time. For example I bought an iPhone 5S some years ago and now none of the apps I am working on run on iOS 12. So I have very little use for it. Ah I guess the vicious upgrade cycle gets developers too :(