I am building an iOS application for public release, and I would like to develop it against iOS 4, as I see from the instapaper stats from November that iOS 5 has a 48% market share, which is good, but my app will probably not be used by these early adopters, and it’s probably not going to be enough to force them to upgrade.
The issue is that I only have an iPhone 4S, which shipped with iOS 5. I have been unable to find an iOS build for my 4S, which upon reflection makes sense. Nontheless, I’d like to know if there is some sort of unofficial build for the 4S or some way to make the iPhone 4 version work on the 4S.
I’m pretty sure that the answer is going to end up being “Buy a 3GS/iPod touch for development”. Would that necessarily be worth it or should I just tough it out? I’m pretty sure that most iOS 4 users will upgrade eventually. Does anyone have any stats on how long it took iOS 3 users to move on?
For your first cut testing, you can use the simulator which, will allow you to test for iOS 4.3
Ideally you need to get hold of the appropriate devices to test your app. You say you’re supporting iOS 4, but do you mean 4.2 or 4.3? If 4.2 then you’ll be supporting iPhone 3G, if 4.3 then 3GS upwards.
There are testing services out there, just search “iPhone testing services”. I’ve never used them myself, so can’t vouch for any of them, but the cost may be less than investing in actual devices.
I kept a 3G and 3GS for testing, but to be honest, even though my main app supports 4.2, I rarely do any testing for older OS versions outside the simulator. I gave the 3GS to my father on condition he tested for me when asked… but of course I had to upgrade it to iOS 5 for him, so it’s of little practical value, apart from testing at different screen res.