I have a client who I’ve done a lot of work for and would like to create an iphone app but I don’t know how to do it using the iphone SDK. I have never developed iphone apps and at the moment don’t have the time to learn for this project.
I know I can do it in unity just using the gui, but I’m not sure about performance/memory/etc issues. What would the pros/cons be to developing a non-gaming iphone app with unity?
Thanks for your advice…
It really depends on the type of App you are making. Biggest cons are load time and non standard user interface.
If it’s a productivity app or any app that needs to use lists of information. I wouldn’t use Unity for it. If it’s an app that doesn’t need to have a standard iphone app look and feel, like a multi media application (like beat maker) or an entertainment app, then Unity would work fine.
the main con for non games is the massive base size your applications will have. Simplistic apps shouldn’t be in the 8mb+ range and thats commonly the bottom end you will end in with unity due to the .NET libraries and the unity engine library
I’ve also had to build an app within Unity that would not fit the conventional mentality of ‘Game’.
I wasn’t aware (nor cared) about all of Unity’s existing gui commands, so I built my own button system etc.
I found the OnEnable() and SendMessage functions basically built the app for me (could turn on/off certain screens with setActiveRecursivly, etc).
I’ll post shots of it when I’m allowed to 
The Pro’s write themselves. Unity handles all your graphics, sound, object handling and (to a certain degree) even memory management.
I suppose the cons, as already mentioned, are build size (if that was ever an issue?), and… err… Actually, I’m not entirely sure.
Unity = thumbs up
if its still a visual application that requires 3d then the build size is naturally no topic.
but if its just a glorified “listing app” or alike then it could become one pretty fast.