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That is indeed right. But we just read this and in my office 6 people are already looking into it. We are all Linux/Windows Devs. But we are interested in the

That is indeed right. But we just read this and in my office 6 people are already looking into it. We are all Linux/Windows Devs. But we are interested in the iOS ecosystem. This service would allows to enter without many barriers. Also it would allows to interact and be part of team developing iOS. I think idea rocks. We could at last port some of our apps to MonoTouch.(We are using MonoDroid already).

vtail 15y ago
It certainly is a valid point. However, your assumption seems to be that the biggest barrier to entry would be hardware? If so, I disagree, with all due respect. I spent best parts of the summer learning iOS - it's not extremely hard, but it has many non-obvious corner cases that you'll need to spend some time to discover. So with almost any reasonable hourly rate (even at the minimal wage) I've invested much, much more in the learning of the framework that I would spend on a minimal hardware that will allow me to develop for iOS. Let's face it - if you're serious about porting your apps to iOS, you would buy a mac at some point.
- aespinoza 15y ago
  It is hardware and software, it is the Mac ecosystem; at least for me. My core business is the Web and we are getting into Android. I already spent several thousand dollars in Hardware. If I want to develop in Mac I need a Mac. It is not as easy as Linux. I could of course built my own Mac, but still it gets pretty expensive. Specially since iOS is not our core market. Now, if iOS ends up being big for us, then yeah, we would stop using the service and buy our own machines. But then the service served its purpose. I guess what I am trying to say is that this kind of service has a market and is not that small. But I do agree with you 100%. If you are serious about iOS development, you need to get your Mac.
vtail 15y ago
BTW, when I said potential market is small, I didn't mean "number of people around me who will find the idea fascinating" is small :). For obvious reason, this is not the case here at HN, but we're a very special crowd.
- aespinoza 15y ago
  Lol. I know what you meant. I just wanted to show you the impact in an office of 13. That is close to 50%. And While I think the market is not big, I don't think it is that small either.

vtail 15y ago

It certainly is a valid point. However, your assumption seems to be that the biggest barrier to entry would be hardware? If so, I disagree, with all due respect. I spent best parts of the summer learning iOS - it's not extremely hard, but it has many non-obvious corner cases that you'll need to spend some time to discover. So with almost any reasonable hourly rate (even at the minimal wage) I've invested much, much more in the learning of the framework that I would spend on a minimal hardware that will allow me to develop for iOS. Let's face it - if you're serious about porting your apps to iOS, you would buy a mac at some point.

aespinoza 15y ago
It is hardware and software, it is the Mac ecosystem; at least for me. My core business is the Web and we are getting into Android. I already spent several thousand dollars in Hardware. If I want to develop in Mac I need a Mac. It is not as easy as Linux. I could of course built my own Mac, but still it gets pretty expensive. Specially since iOS is not our core market. Now, if iOS ends up being big for us, then yeah, we would stop using the service and buy our own machines. But then the service served its purpose. I guess what I am trying to say is that this kind of service has a market and is not that small. But I do agree with you 100%. If you are serious about iOS development, you need to get your Mac.

vtail 15y ago

BTW, when I said potential market is small, I didn't mean "number of people around me who will find the idea fascinating" is small :). For obvious reason, this is not the case here at HN, but we're a very special crowd.

aespinoza 15y ago
Lol. I know what you meant. I just wanted to show you the impact in an office of 13. That is close to 50%. And While I think the market is not big, I don't think it is that small either.