I am really excited about the possibility of MonoTouch and a .NET based implementation of the iPhone Development Framework. Objective-C and Cocoa are great but limiting Development to just one language and one Framework really narrows the playing field. By providing a .NET Framework for building iPone Applications, this world of Development will now be opened up to a much larger group of people. How do you feel about the possibilities of being able to not only use C# to develop iPhone Applications but to be able to also use MonoDevelop? I would assume an integrated Designer much like Stetic, the GTK# will be forthcoming so you can do it all soup to nuts within MonoDevelop. Or, maybe the Mono guys plan on just integrating with Apple's Interface Builder. That would be quicker but limits development to the Mac OS X. - Kevin Darty

My last comment brings up a discussion. If the MonoDevelop Team builds in a full GUI Designer within MonoDevelop this means you will be able to design iPhone Applications on the Mac, Linux or Windows. What about the iPhone Simulator :) - Kevin Darty

I'm really interested in MonoTouch. It will be exciting to see it develop. - Wallace B. McClure

With MonoDevelop now working on the Mac and Windows, as well as Linux, it would be great to be able to open up iPhone Application Development to Windows and Linux users as well. MonoTouch is going to make iPhone App Development so much more accessible to a much larger community of Developers. - Kevin Darty

Over on Twitter, @migueldeicaza mentioned to @rschu You can develop, but you wont be able to test, deploy or use Interface Builder. For that you need a Mac. - This conversation was about the use of MonoDevelop on different Operating Systems to create iPhone Applicatons. - Kevin Darty

It looks like #MonoTouch could end up a Fee Based component for #Mono instead of Open Souce. This could be a big mistake. #iPhone - Kevin Darty

It is quite possible that MonoTouch could end up being part of Novell's strategy to monetize Mono. Personally I think this would be a really bad idea. Why you might ask? Well, for the moment iPhone Development is stuck on one OS with one Programming Language. To make matters worse, 80% + of all Developers use the competing Operating System so programming for the iPhone is out of their reach. MonoTouch stands a chance for putting Mono on the map. So many programmers have looked over Mono for years but MonoTouch could sway people over to the "other side" of .NET. If Novell decides to charge for it, there could be far less people that could be convinced to use it. This could keep Mono in the niche market. - Kevin Darty

The idea of Novell charging for MonoTouch came from a Tweet on Twitter so it could very well be untrue. I for one do not believe they will charge for it as Miguel de Icaza has commented that while you can develop in MonoDevelop on any OS, you will need a Mac and XCode to design your User Interface (Interface Builder) and also to Deploy your Applications. This effectively makes MonoDevelop just an Editor and I'm not sure anyone would pay for that. The MonoTouch web site does mention that you will be able to use XCode or MonoDevelop so that leads me to believe that the XCode plugin could be a "for sale" item but considering MonoDevelop will be very limited I can't see Novell charging for that. Lots of people charge for Eclipse plug-ins so charging for an XCode plugin is not out of the question. Now the question comes up... if you don't pay but develop in MonoDevelop, will you still be able to Test and Deploy via XCode? - Kevin Darty

The MonoTouch web site clearly needs more information posted to clear up such topics for such a highly anticipated Development Component :) - Kevin Darty