Just as everyone else said, ideas right now are basically not worth much...because of good old simple market economics: the supply of ideas is extremely high, and supply of competent programmers is much lower. An excellent treatment of this topic is here: http://blogs.oreilly.com/iphone/2008/11/turning-ideas-into-application.html That said, if you are serious about wanting to get your idea produced, you can. Just be prepared to match the investment that your programmer will have to make (in the form of his/her time). You can do it in a myriad of ways, but one way or another, you absolutely have to acknowledge the investment that an engineer is making, or else you won't get anywhere. I don't know you background, but if it's not in programming, you are probably much better off hiring someone with a mastery of the iPhone SDK to do your work than try to do it yourself. Thanks Ryan
Well, not free: you still have to buy Leopard, which comes included with Macs. It costs 1/4 as much as just getting a refurb Mini.
This is true, but if you decide you don't like developing for the iPhone than you can reinstall Windows on your machine if you didn't dual boot, or just blow away OS X if you did dual boot, and you're only out $129 (last time I priced) vs. the cost of a machine. Plus, even the "cheap" machine is potentially a lot more than $499. There's tax, there's a warranty (which I don't think comes with it), keyboard and mouse if you need it (I recommend 3rd party, because Apple charges $100 for the pair), and monitor if so needed. So even if you just need machine and warranty you're looking at $649 plus tax. If someone is really unsure about the development thing and they have the machine to swing it, I highly recommend the "OS X on a PC" route first.
Actually, I think that was a bit of mis-wording on his part. The SDK is free. I could download it now if I had a Mac. To officially be a part of the developer's network - which is what allows you to release games on the App Store - that's what costs $99.
The SDK is free--you can start to learn it on your own at no risk (or use it to make Mac apps). Participating in the store is not free. Nor is installing your app on your phone--even for testing. So it's free with limits. Of course, Xcode plus the App Store is a pretty awesome system to get for just $99.
This is definitely true. It sure beats the thousands of dollars it costs to develop games for next gen consoles and handhelds.
If you are someone looking into making app's, your avarage cost to get started will look like this: Mac Mini £500 Indie apple license fee £60+ iPhone or Touch (I guess you have one already) £169+ If you already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse with usb ports then they should work on the Mini, but there is always something else you might need so add more £ to your planned spending. If you can't code then you will either have to learn or find someone, who will probably want payment or a cut of the sales, that's more £ and management. While i'm not finger pointing here, too many people seem to think having an idea and turning it into a cool app is easy, while I would say it's not. If you believe that your app can do well I say go for it and do everything you can to make it real, but prepare to spend money on doing so.
All Macs (including refurbs) come with the latest full version of Leopard pre-installed. Other than a keyboard, mouse and monitor, which you've probably got if you're able to access this forum, that's it. So other than tax in some states, there's no extra costs. Compare that to the day or so you could lose trying to get a hackintosh working (a friend of mine who is pretty competent in Mac and PC repair is still trying to get one working, despite it being an 'easy' one to make work as a hackintosh) and compare it to the time and money you've lost if/when it fails on you just before submission.
Unfortunately, an idea is not worth an equal share of the profit with the developer. If you have an idea and a developer actually makes it, the developer should probably get something like 99% of the revenue. (Just like Thomas Edison's insight that "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.") It might take about a minute to come up with an idea for a game. I've have two or three a week. But the developer will need to do much, much more work, answering questions like: how can I make this game feasible on this device? what technology will I need to use? what is the best way to implement it? Then they will spend hours upon hours actually typing code, fixing problems, in order to make that idea a reality. Notice that there are a lot of people in the forums with ideas who are in search of developers. There are not a lot of developers saying, "Wow! I have tons of development and programming skills and I want to make an iPhone game, but I just have no idea what to program." This is why the programming skills are what is truly valuable. But with regards to Macs...yeah, you can get started iPhone developing for under a thousand bucks. It sounds expensive, but its probably the cheapest game development has ever been for a platform with this kind of install base. Except maybe the TI-83.
No you don't have to buy Leopard. You don't have to buy anything when it comes to computer software, but that's beside the point. If you want to spend money, just go buy a Mac. The hackint0sh approach is more for those who want to play around with OS X and/or iPhone development *without* spending money first, or as a side hobby. Two other small points: 1) You computer won't suddenly 'fail' just because you didn't pay Apple for the software. It doesn't work like that. Your hardware doesn't know that it didn't come from the Apple store. 2) If the prospect of installing and configuring OS X on your PC scares you, what makes you think you will be able to program a game?
1) No but it will fail because you're running an OS on it that it wasn't designed for. 2) If the prospect of paying $1000 for a Mac mini and dev license scares you compared to what you think your app would make you on the iPhone, being an iPhone dev probably isn't a good business plan for you
Do you mean pirate a copy of Mac OS? Just to to be clear since there are Mac newcomers here: OS X (aka Leopard) can be hacked to run on a PC, but you still DO have to have OS X, which is paid software, not free. The Xcode tools (which require OS X) are what are free. Failures occur not because the hardware knows it's not a Mac, but because the SOFTWARE knows it's not a Mac. "Knows" meaning that the software was meant for differnet hardware/drives, and Apple doesn't test and debug their updates for anything but their own machines. So when a software update comes along, you're at your own risk. As for being afraid to set up a hacked OS and troubleshoot your OS when/if it breaks: it's not necessarily about fear. It's about wanting to work on YOUR projects rather than work on your computer. The work of educating yourself about hackintoshes, the work of setting one up, the work of dealing with any failed updates--all that is time that could be spent USING your Mac and getting your game done. (Same reason I don't use Windows anymore: I have the technical know-how battle Windows, but I'd rather do other things.) For hobbyists, I realize, the battle is half the fun. I hacked my iPod just "because I could." (But then again, I wasn't trying to conduct business and make a product on that iPod.) So I'm not saying I don't understand the appeal of a hackintosh--I do (not to mention, a machine you build yourself is always cheaper than a Dell or Apple). But for people deciding how to get into iPhone development, the above reasons to get a real Mac are worth considering.
What do you think Mac's run on, magical Apple-made hardware? They use the same 3rd party hardware many PC users already own: same Intel CPUs, same Intel motherboard chipsets, same ATI or nVidia GPU, same HD, same ram, etc. Hence the cheapest Mac for many PC owners might be: there own PC + OSX (cheap as in free). If you have the computer savvy to program an application for the iPhone, and an Intel-based PC, you can install OSX and play around with it for if you'd like. It installs in about 20 minutes and runs like a dream... exactly like it would on a Mac with similar specs. (Again, this is only for people wanting to get their feet wet, not a permanent replacement for an actual Mac for professional use.)
Other PC brands don't even use the same hardware/drivers as each other. It's a real challenge that Microsoft has had to put up with. Apple, designing the hardware and software together, has a lot less variety to test and debug for. Your best long-term bet with a hackintosh is certainly to come AS CLOSE as possible to the hardware and drivers of a real Mac. But "close" isn't identical. I wouldn't want my hackintosh to crash when the next OS X patch accidentally conflicts with the drivers for some part I've chosen to use. I don't know how big the risk is, but there a LOT of parts in a computer, and they do matter. Even one obscure chip vs. another matters, which is why sometimes software has a bug on just one certain hardware config. That happens all the time in the Windows world, while Apple steers clear of the issue by knowing exactly what systems to test on. Question: have OS X patches ever needed additional work from hackintosh owners to make them run?
Guys, I don't think all this bickering about hackintosh vs. mac is really benefitting anyone. What it really boils down to is this: if you don't have a Mac, and you want to "test the waters" on iPhone development without much expenditure, go with a hackintosh. If you don't like it, your out little or nothing (depending on whether you chose to buy an OS X license or just "acquire" it). If you know for sure this is what you want to do, or you go the hackintosh route and decide you actually want to do the iPhone thing, then buy a Mac. This is the easiest way to look at it.
Hopefully it IS helping people who don't know how all these options play out. But your scenario makes good sense. Risking some labor + $105 (OS X at Amazon) is different from risking $499 or more. (Although the $499+ still leaves you with a nice tiny Mac-and-Windows-ready PC with good resale value, even if you decide not to get into iPhone development.)
