[PCWorld]

Post your comments for The iPhone SDK: What Apple Got Right here

[trevor97007]

Sure Macs are nice, but they're so damn expensive it gives people who can only afford PCs no option for iPhone programming. I was expecting to see a cross-platform SDK, but apparently Apple only thinks that consumers and enterprises with Macs are worth their time and that Windows compatibility is there just to shut people up. If they really want companies to buy the iPhone, then they NEED a Win SDK.

[cweberusa]

trevor97007 said:

Sure Macs are nice, but they're so damn expensive it gives people who can only afford PCs no option for iPhone programming. I was expecting to see a cross-platform SDK, but apparently Apple only thinks that consumers and enterprises with Macs are worth their time and that Windows compatibility is there just to shut people up. If they really want companies to buy the iPhone, then they NEED a Win SDK.

I think this comment completely misses the point. The iPhone OS is essentially MacOSX plus new APIs to access the touch screen and accelerometers. In essence the iPhone is a Mac in disguise, and the fact that it plays as well with a Windows PC as it does now (from a user perspective) is awesome.

However, for development the situation is different. Some features of the iPhone SDK, such as iPhone emulator, debugger, performance tools, etc., are relatively straightforward to implement on regular desktop MacOSX, given the shared code base and all, but very hard (to say the least) on Windows. Plus, the SDK builds on the existing MacOSX XCode IDE, which doesn't exist under Windows. The iPhone SDK is not just a cheapish collection of tools. It's the real deal, giving you full access to all features of the iPhone. It's what Apple engineers use themselves.

So sure, you can bemoan the non-existence of a Windows-based iPhone SDK, and granted, it would have been nice to have one. But at the end of the day you've got to ask yourself: Which would you rather have, a so-so set of tools playing to the lowest common denominator, or full access to the innards of a full fledged OS? Besides, if you can afford an iPhone, why is a Mac Mini or a MacBook such an issue? Both make capable Windows machines for the time you don't want to program iPhone apps, if that's your preference.

[RastaMon]

Quote

Sure Macs are nice, but they're so damn expensive it gives people who can only afford PCs no option for iPhone programming.

Macs are priced very competitively when compared to equally featured PCs. Apple has chosen not to try to compete in the low end market, so one can always find a PC that is priced lower than a Mac, but those bargain priced PCs don't have the feature set that is standard on Macs.

[mtretick]

Tiger Direct has a Mac for less than $500

Still too expensive?

Buy a used one. Craigslist for $100 B-)