ASK HN: Can we run a Mac OS as a VMware appliance ?

There is a "Hackintosh" VMware image, but you didn't hear that from me. Just buy a Mac mini.

(Mac zealots, cue complaints about "iPhone carpetbaggers".)

a Mac Mini is probably cheaper than a VMWare + OS X license :-)

Especially if you consider the time it will cost you to setup a hackintosh. I believe VMWare now supports emulation of OS X on a macintosh so you should be able to use one mac mini and an external HD to test several different versions of OS X.

... especially if you look second hand.

I'd expect you could get something quite capable of iPhone development pretty cheap.

You have a device right?