How can I develop for iPhone using a Windows development machine?

Generally iOS applications can be developed on mac operating systems only, but recently with system development now applications for iOS can partially be developed on windows system too.

To develop iOS or any other apps for apple platform, we need Xcode which is a native Apple software and can be installed on mac operating systems only. Also, a mac operating system is generally installed and supported on an Apple device.

There are multiple work around for this like buying a normal laptop installing third party software to run mac OS on them and later installing Xcode, or buying/renting a cloud Mac. In this article we’ll talk about the most comfortable and best approach apart from owning a mac.

Developing iOS apps on windows with Cross-platform

Cross platform tools are great but not easy to learn and master. Native platform are easy, like you could buy a mac learn swift and start coding, but cross platforms or hybrids are complicated and take time to master.

One benefit that you have with most cross platforms is that you develop application once and you can run it on android or iOS ( most of the time ).

Some options for cross platform application development are −

Xamarin − You can use Xamarin IDE to develop cross platform application. If you have any expertise in C# it would be a plus point as xamarin IDE uses C# as its programming language.

React Native/React − React native is based on react which is similar to javascript which is mainly used for web applications but can be used to develop hybrid applications which can be later deployed to android as well as iOS. If you have any experience in React or react native or javascript it would be better to learn hybrid app development rather than buying a mac and learning swift.

PhoneGap/Ionic − These platfroms are based on web based application development, and use HTML, CSS, Javascript etc. These platform can be used to develop applications if you are comfortable with these technologies.

Choosing a cross platform or hybrid platform to develop applications is a great and smart move as you’ll be able to develop applications for both platforms at the same time, not just iOS or Android.