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I'm developing an Android application and I would really like to deploy it for the iPhone as well.
However, I do not know Objective-C and I think it would take an annoyingly long time to figure that and the Apple framework out.
Is there a recommended way to port an Android application to iOS? Would the best bet be to hire a freelancer?
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Interfaces of Android and iOS devices are totally different so, unfortunately, reusing the interface of the first app and porting it to another platform isn't an option. The main conceptual difference lies in companies' approaches: Apple uses HIG (Human Interface Guidelines) while Google prefers material design.
Simply back up files on your Android phone, then install the Google Drive app on your iPhone to access your files instantly. You can only transfer files, photos, videos, settings, and app data with Google Drive.
On the run now (home time ;-) ), so my answer will be concise (sorry)
Take a look at/Google (in no particular order):
MoSync <- Compiles C++ native apps to several mobile platforms, including Android and IOS, GPL for non-commercial projects.
AirplaySDK: Similar to MoSync, mainly commercial, has some free licensing for one of the 2 environments you're after (believe that's IOS, please verify yourself). Has been used comercially by Konami, Activision etc.
OpenFrameworks (OF) - Collections of C++ 'wrapper' code which enables unified cross-platform development of Audio/Visual projects (could be used for Games etc). The Android port is beta, see Android/Eclipse/OF Installation and the Android port's GitHub repository/developer (branch 0062_Android). The iPhone-specific code is quite complete (accelerometer access, etc. etc.).
XMLVM - It allows some level of porting from Java to a native IOS executable. Not sure how far forward this project is, and you might need to implement some of their framework classes (relatively trivial if you've got good separation of your existing Java libs).
Personally, I'm looking at OpenFrameworks right now, mainly as I like the 'One API' concept and I'm avoiding Objective-C for the moment (Want to ease myself in, I'm a Java/C# dev).
Edit: Notice that since this answer was written XMLVM development has stopped. Also Codename One came out in the interim and provides a path for Java developers.
Cheers
Rich
75
Your best bet for X-plat is HTML 5.
You will not be able to automagically port your native code because Android and iPhone use completely different patterns for developing all aspects of "the app".
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Right now I've only seen MonoTouch (now Xamarin) available for cross platform development, which allows you to develop in .NET targetting the iPhone.
I have not seen a similar product for Android, but would a .NET based conversion process be feasible? The pricing is not outrageous.
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