It's certainly possible to develop on a Windows machine, in fact, my first application was exclusively developed on the old Dell Precision I had at the time :)
There are three routes;
- Install OSx86 (aka iATKOS / Kalyway) on a second partition/disk and dual boot.
- Run Mac OS X Server under VMWare (Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) onwards, read the update below).
- Use Delphi XE4 and the macincloud service. This is a commercial toolset, but the component and lib support is growing.
The first route requires modifying (or using a pre-modified) image of Leopard that can be installed on a regular PC. This is not as hard as you would think, although your success/effort ratio will depend upon how closely the hardware in your PC matches that in Mac hardware - e.g. if you're running a Core 2 Duo on an Intel Motherboard, with an NVidia graphics card you are laughing. If you're running an AMD machine or something without SSE3 it gets a little more involved.
If you purchase (or already own) a version of Leopard then this is a gray area since the Leopard EULA states you may only run it on an "Apple Labeled" machine. As many point out if you stick an Apple sticker on your PC you're probably covered.
The second option is more costly. The EULA for the workstation version of Leopard prevents it from being run under emulation and as a result, there's no support in VMWare for this. Leopard server, however, CAN be run under emulation and can be used for desktop purposes. Leopard server and VMWare are expensive, however.
If you're interested in option 1) I would suggest starting at Insanelymac and reading the OSx86 sections.
I do think you should consider whether the time you will invest is going to be worth the money you will save though. It was for me because I enjoy tinkering with this type of stuff and I started during the early iPhone betas, months before their App Store became available.
Alternatively, you could pick up a low-spec Mac Mini from eBay. You don't need much horsepower to run the SDK and you can always sell it on later if you decide to stop development or buy a better Mac.
Update: You cannot create a Mac OS X Client virtual machine for OS X 10.6 and earlier. Apple does not allow these Client OSes to be virtualized. With Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) onwards, Apple has changed its licensing agreement in regards to virtualization. Source: VMWare KnowledgeBase
NOTE: This process is heavily simplified in XCode 4 (although not personally tested by me) with importing and exporting of developer profiles through the Organizer window (Developer Profile section).
This is how I got it working.
1) Login to the iOS Provisioning Portal as the Agent.
2) Run through the process of making the Distribution Certificate Signing Request / Provisioning Profile: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/manage/distribution/index.action. These instructions a re super long, but pretty clear and necessary.
3) Pay extra attention to the section "Obtaining your iOS Distribution Certificate" > "Saving your Private Key and Transferring to Other Systems" on that page. It describes how to generate and save the Agent's .p12 file.
4) Now invite other developer(s) to be part of the team in the Member Center: https://developer.apple.com/membercenter/index.action#invitations
5) Back in the iOS Provisioning Portal, download the app's Distribution Certificate (Certificates > Distribution (tab)). Should be named "distribution_identity.cer"
6) Now download the Distribution Provisioning Profile (Provisioning > Distribution (tab)). Should be named "whatever_you_named_it.mobileprovision"
7) Email those two files along with the Agent's .p12 file to your other developer machine.
8) On the developer's machine, double-click the distribution_identity.cer file and it should load up in Keychain Access
9) Drag the .p12 file to Keychain and it should automatically put the identity under the certificate
10) Drag the whatever_you_named_it.mobileprovision file into XCode.
11) In each of the Project and Build's Info windows, set the Code Signing Identity to the "iPhone Distribution - Your Company" identity which should now be available.
Hope that helps. Rob
Best Answer
You are expected to use separate development and distribution certificates; you actually set up different configurations for them. The "nightmare" comes when you use several different development certificates. If anyone touches the certificate setting on the Debug configuration, it must thereafter be set manually (which is a pain in the ass, of course).
So no, there's no problem with the Team Agent giving you his distribution certificate and private key (you'll need both). He needs to realize that Apple will hold him responsible for your distribution of packages, though.