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not everyone has those toys already, i dont have the iphone and ipad for example (not even an ios developer account)

FWIW, if you have a Mac, you can get the iOS development environment from Apple for free, and just run your apps on a simulator.

But Oracle and Windows development then are issues, since last I checked much the Microsoft development stuff isn't free.

Dunno about oracle (i heard about XE edition or something with limited memory?), but MS Visual Studio has Express edition, which is free