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They may not be "hostile" but they are most certainly more likely to treat iOS as a second-class citizen or an afterthought, which is obviously not all that des

They may not be "hostile" but they are most certainly more likely to treat iOS as a second-class citizen or an afterthought, which is obviously not all that desirable. Depending on who you ask a half hearted port is worse than nothing at all. By requiring a Mac to develop for iOS, they're forcing a certain level of investment which makes it more likely that developers targeting the platform make their apps worth the time spent (for both the dev and the consumer). By opening it up they're welcoming those who port just to tick a box.

mkishi 10y ago
That's a much more reasonable argument. It's also likely the real reason there's no cross-development support. It does open another thread of discussion, though: as far as I'm aware, there's no proven correlation between buying a Mac and caring about the quality of your iOS product. I could just as well say that companies that want to tick a box for their sub-par apps farm invest in several platforms much more easily than starting devs who can't afford multiple setups and pride themselves in craftsmanship. Which one is closer to reality or has the bigger impact, I have no idea.
Drakim 10y ago
That's ridiculous. Sure, somebody who doesn't have an iPhone and yet wants to develop apps for the iPhone is likely to treat iOS as a second class citizen. But you are saying that if somebody bought the iPhone on launch date, and has upgraded to every new model as soon as it came out, and is obsessed with all things iOS....then he is still gonna treat iOS as a second-class citizen because he doesn't own a OSX and a Mac, which are different hardware and a different OS from the device he wants to make an app for?? That's crazy.