iOS New Developer Question

[iTexasDude]

I have a friend that was not very clear on what the money was spent on but claimed that there was on the order of $3000 required to tool up to be able to develop for the iphone/ipad.

I cannot see how. The only pay part of the process seems to be the $99....

Does anyone know what he is talking about? Did there used to be a high charge for the tools from Apple? Is there a higher level of developer than what the introductory threads discuss?

 

[dejo]

Perhaps he's including the cost of hardware, since you need an Intel-Mac to develop?

 

[firewood]

From scratch, you need a non-ancient Mac (from an Intel Mini + display, on up), a test device (used Touch, on up) or three, fast internet access (enough to download the multi-GB SDKs, etc.), and a $99 developer account.

That could easily add up to over 3 grand, if you get a nice new iMac or MacBook Pro, plus an iPhone 4, iPad and used iPod Touch, plus write off near $100/mo for home/office broadband + AT&T Mobile voice+data for a year.

Could be a lot less if you already have an Intel Mac or buy a used Mini and junk monitor, then use your library's, school's or parent's broadband, and just test on an old used iPod Touch. Maybe as low as a couple hundred.

 

[(marc)]

Maybe your friend falsely assumes you need a full-fledged Mac Pro to develop for iOS and included that in the $3000?

[...]
That could easily add up to over 3 grand, if you get a nice new iMac or MacBook Pro, plus an iPhone 4, iPad and used iPod Touch, plus write off near $100/mo for home/office broadband + AT&T Mobile voice+data for a year.
[...]

You totally don't need an iPhone 4, an iPad and an iPod touch to develop for iOS.

 

[dejo]

You totally don't need an iPhone 4, an iPad and an iPod touch to develop for iOS.

No, but it really, really helps! Apple recommends having devices to test your app on and I agree. In some cases, it's a necessity! Running on the Simulator != running on a device.

 

[firewood]

You totally don't need an iPhone 4, an iPad and an iPod touch to develop for iOS.

No. But you can get bit in the *ss by unexpected performance, memory, display quality, or feature behavior issues if you don't test on a wide range of devices. Maybe that friend wants a budget where they are more likely to keep their *ss unchewed.

 

[(marc)]

No, but it really, really helps! Apple recommends having devices to test your app on and I agree. In some cases, it's a necessity! Running on the Simulator != running on a device.

No. But you can get bit in the *ss by unexpected performance, memory, display quality, or feature behavior issues if you don't test on a wide range of devices. Maybe that friend wants a budget where they are more likely to keep their *ss unchewed.

True, but you only need one device. I'm developing on a 1st gen iPod touch, it's worth around $50 now.

 

[dejo]

True, but you only need one device. I'm developing on a 1st gen iPod touch, it's worth around $50 now.

It's doable. But sometimes can lead to problems. If you can test your app on each of the devices your app is written for, you'll be better aware of potential issues. For example, a 1st gen iPod touch can only run iOS 3.1.3, so you miss out on the ability to test your app under 4.x.

 

[(marc)]

It's doable. But sometimes can lead to problems. If you can test your app on each of the devices your app is written for, you'll be better aware of potential issues. For example, a 1st gen iPod touch can only run iOS 3.1.3, so you miss out on the ability to test your app under 4.x.

Yup, but if you read the documentation attentively and don't program with 4.x-only features, it's easily doable.

 

[dejo]

...don't program with 4.x-only feature...

Seems a little short-sighted to me. And your users may be running their apps, even if they're only written for 3.x, from within 4.x. Makes it harder to troubleshoot. Plus, there may be changes to the APIs.

Overall, I'm just trying to say that a committed developer should try, as best they can, to test in the same environments as their end users. It's usually impossible, but it's a noble goal, no less.

 

[(marc)]

Seems a little short-sighted to me. And your users may be running their apps, even if they're only written for 3.x, from within 4.x. Makes it harder to troubleshoot. Plus, there may be changes to the APIs.

Overall, I'm just trying to say that a committed developer should try, as best they can, to test in the same environments as their end users. It's usually impossible, but it's a noble goal, no less.

Yes, it's obviously easier and more secure to troubleshoot directly on 4.x if you're aiming at it. I'm just trying to say that if you don't have the money to buy new hardware, it's possible (albeit harder) to develop on old hardware

 

[SERAPHRowen]

I have a friend that was not very clear on what the money was spent on but claimed that there was on the order of $3000 required to tool up to be able to develop for the iphone/ipad.

If he's your friend, can't you just ask him what he spent it on? Sounds like you don't trust him. As others have said, if he bought a mac, and a testing device, it's clear how one could hit 3k. If he had that stuff already or didn't spend it on that, then I'd definitely press for details.

 

[firewood]

True, but you only need one device. I'm developing on a 1st gen iPod touch, it's worth around $50 now.

Lucky you. Did you know there are things that run slower on a 3GS than on a first get Touch? And more and different things that run even slower or have memory problems on a device upgraded to iOS 4.x? Or that look awful or are awkward to handle the UI on an iPad? If you don't care, hopefully your apps don't break too badly on customers with those devices.

So developers do care, and budget accordingly for their needs.

Maybe you just have a drunk friend test your apps. Some developers have much higher budgets than several grand per app just for commercial quality QA.

 

[firewood]

You can easily spend over $3G just on a Mac Pro with a nice dual 27" monitor setup. Some developers consider that the minimal setup for convenient iPad app development. Add up over a dozen test devices on top of that if you want to test on every OS version on every device type.