First time buying a Mac to learn iOS.

the thing with Macs is they all work pretty well, out of the box. most of it will depend on your budget, there really isn't a lot to learn with ios, it's smart and intuitive, - most people who are new to mac get stumped by it at first because they expect to have to learn how to use it and its super easy!

mainly the spec depends what you use it for, - are you looking at general web dev and image editing then an imac might be up your street. i have a MBP and have always liked the portability element of it

Im not an expert with macs but i do own a 13 inch mac book pro, I tell you now. You might think like me thinking the 13 inch display is just going to be too small but it really isn't. What i love most about the mac book is how easy the track pad it to use compared to any other laptop.

Also what Andi mentioned on the portability that is also great as they are so light to carry. Not all the useful information you wanted on where to buy one etc but thought i would just tell you what i thought after owning a mac book pro for a few months. :)

Any Mac would work as long as you have the latest version of OSX. iOS development does not require much but like any kind of software development, the better the hardware, the faster you can get things done. You could even get a used/refurbished Mac as old as 2008 and install the latest version of OSX (Mavericks). If you are planning on doing some serious development then a Macbook PRO with an SSD drive and 8GB of RAM would be preferable but not necessary.

get the mbp with a good isp external display or get an iMac.

Mac Mini best price and performance

Also, this may not be a big deal for most people but with the Retina MBP the iOS simulator (Retina) can be run at full size and you don't have to scroll around your screen to see all of it. I had an OOOOOLD (7 years) MBP that was obviously non-retina, slow and had atrocious battery life (2.5 hours). It was sort of annoying scrolling up and down the screen to look at my UI. Also, if you plan to do all your own graphics for apps you may want the Retina. I couldn't wait to throw fist fulls of money at Apple when they released the new MBP because for me the haswell and the Retina were worth it. However that doesn't mean everyone needs the Retina. Anything recent should have decent battery life and compile your apps in a reasonable amount of time.

Would definitely agree with Alexey Kazantsev that Mac Mini is your best bet for entry level mac, but you'll need a decent display to go with it. Depends how portable you need to be. A laptop will work well with an external display when you're doing work from home/office too. Most of my work is office based so I use an iMac. I came across from windows 4 years ago and have never looked back. Took less than a day to get everything across and the only thing I had to get "used to" was the different keyboard shortcuts which took about an hour :D

The resale value of older Mac's is pretty high so may be worth buying new if you can afford it for the money you'll save. That way you're backed up by Apple's guarantees and you can purchase additional Apple Care if you need to. That being said, my iMac is almost over 2 years old and not had one single problem.

Spencer,

You have to be very careful when buying Apple Products and I speak from experience. You will notice that many websites and people will sell used Mac’s at prices close to or more than brand new Apple computers. Some website that sell old used mac computers that start with a stripped down Mac and when you add 4GB of memory, decent hard drive size of 500GB+, and latest OS it will cost you more than a new Apple Computer. It is best to buy new when buying Apple Products. Even the Apple Refurbished Store are all priced very close (overpriced) compared to a brand new Mac with the latest processor, OS X Mavericks, graphics, and display, etc. With the new Intel Haswell Processor in the MacBook Pro’s the battery will last much longer than before.
I would go with a new Apple Computer with the Haswell Processor in a MacBook Pro or wait for the iMac Mini with the Haswell Processor.

Happy Carful Shopping,

Mark

I would look at the Apple online store and checkout the refurbished items section (http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals). You can usually get deals comparable to those on Craigslist, you know the reputation of the seller, and you have the same warranty as if you purchased new. Little known fact - you can also buy the AppleCare warranty to extend the warranty of a refurbished device as well!

More info: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/refurbfaq_popup

If you have the cash go "iMac", or find the best way to get a larger screen.