Enrolling in the iOS developer program

To deploy to an iOS device, Apple requires membership to its iOS Developer Program. Membership is $99 USD per year and gives you access to deploy 200 devices for development purposes. You also get access to test servers for implementing more advanced iOS features such as in-app purchases, push notifications, and iOS Game Center. Testing your Xamarin.iOS applications on a physical device is important, so I recommend that you get an account prior to starting iOS development. Performance is very different in a simulator running on your desktop versus a real mobile device. There are also a few Xamarin-specific optimizations that only occur when running on a real device. We'll fully cover the reasons for testing your apps on devices in later chapters.

Signing up for the iOS developer program can be performed through the following steps:

You should receive an e-mail that looks something like the following screenshot within two business days:

From here, you can continue setting up your account:

When all is said and done, your Agreements, Tax, and Banking section should look something like the following screenshot:

With your iOS developer account successfully registered, you will now be able to deploy to iOS devices and publish your apps to the Apple App Store.