After writing the previous post, I decided to do some research to see if there was other ways, on a student budget, to write iPhone apps without a Mac and Apple developer account.

Well, the good news is that its possible to write the apps without going over budget. The bad news is, theres no other way to submit them to the app store without purchasing the $99 subscription. Sure, you can give them to someone else to submit, but then they get the credit…and we don’t want that! 😉

With regards the actual coding, this bits a bit tricky.

Now, while it is definitely possible to actually write code, and compile it on Windows, it is not exactly ideal. The reasons behind this are as follows:

  1. Some IDEs actually facilitate HTML5/javascript coding. This is then “wrapped” in an app and the built in browser is used to render it. While it works, its still not native code so you may suffer from a performance hit. I did find an IDE that lets you write your own Objective-C, but you then have to upload your code to their own server, which is Mac based. It then compiles, converts to an app, and provides a download link to the compiled app. If you’re worried about people stealing your source code, you may want to avoid these!
  2. The compilers that natively compile Objective-C do not support the Foundation classes, which give the iPhone its look and feel. Remember, Objective-C was around long before the iPhone, and even Mac OSX. You can perhaps somehow copy over the foundation classes from XCode and compile a fully-fledged iPhone app, but then you get this problem….
  3. Testing. There are 2 ways to test an iPhone app. 1: Copy it via USB directly to the iPhone, or 2: Use the iPhone simulator/emulator. First of all, to transfer the app to the iPhone, you need the developer account, and you also need the iPhone SDK…on a Mac. Secondly, the simulator/emulator only works on the iPhone SDK…on a Mac.

If you are interested, I’ll list the software I came across and you can test them yourselves. Note, I havent tested any of these myself as I am only at the early stages myself!

  • AirPlay (probably the closest you’ll get, compiles to Obj-C)
  • Appcelerator Titanium (HTML/javascript)
  • Flash CS5 (HTML/javascript)
  • Unity 3D (for games, needs Mac to compile)
  • StoneStrip S3D (for games, needs Mac to compile)
  • Genuitec MobiOne (HTML/Javascript)
  • Dragonfire SDK (code in Obj-C, upload to THEIR server, which compiles your code.  Then you download the app)

Also, I should point out that you still need to have the Apple Developer Account for these pieces of software, like Adobe CS5, since you will need to transfer the app to the iPhone, and this is only done by provisioning it with your Developer Code!!

So there you have it. Not the greatest of options on Windows, for a change. Although I hear Mac Minis are going for about €800/$600 these days…;)