I'm looking to get into smartphone development, but there a quite a few options out there for platforms right now. (iOS/Android/WebOS/Bada/Symbian/MeeGo/WindowsMobile/JavaME)
I'd like to have development hardware to test my code and the overall functionality of the devices.
What is the best way to obtain and/or borrow hardware for development and testing? Are there rules of thumb to follow which apply to all companies and platforms?
In this situation, I'm a single developer. Does this process change for a startup? A hackerspace? A small business? A large business?
Best Answer
It sounds like the best way to go about this is to go to the manufacturer's developer page, or the page for the operating system.
Here are some of the developer pages I was able to find:
Palm Developers Page
bada Developers Page
iOS Dev Center
Android Developers Page
MeeGo Developers Page
HTC Developer Center
Motorola Developer Network
Sony Ericsson Developer World
LG Mobile Developer Network
Nokia Developer Programs (on Forum.Nokia)
Windows Phone AppHub
BlackBerry Developer Zone
EDIT: MobiForge appears to have an excellent article about the options that developers have for testing on physical devices. They suggest three options:
Purchase the devices (either new or through places like ebay)
Hire (or rent) the devices (using a service such as Adams Phones)
Use a testing provider (such as Samsung Lab.Dev or DeviceAnywhere)