Today's Mac mini's are more than powerful enough to write code on. But the gist of your argument seems to be that the cost of buying a mac seems to be a big ba

Today's Mac mini's are more than powerful enough to write code on. But the gist of your argument seems to be that the cost of buying a mac seems to be a big barrier to entry in some markets. While I would agree with that to some degree, the fact that there is over 400k apps in the appstore tells me that the barrier is either non existent or a lot lower than people are making it out to be. Furthermore, there are other costs besides the computer itself when developing for iOS. So if the developer isn't making enough money to cover all of those costs, the that developer needs to try something else to make money. Which isn't to say "not to do iOS development" but to find out why their app isn't selling and adjust. The "build it and they will come" is a fallacy and many developers fall into that trap.