I'm keen to get hold of the new iPhone 6 but wanted to give the iOS 8 operating system a try first. I want to see how it stacks up against the old iOS 7 and whether or not it's worth the extra money. Is there anyway to install iOS 8 on a virtual machine like VirtualBox or VMWare? I've done it with Android 4.4 (Kit Kat) but haven't had much luck with the iOS operating systems.
You cannot run iOS on virtualbox simply because virtualbox virtualises the x86 architecture, and not the ARM architecture. You'd need an ARM emulator that emulates the a5, a6, a7 or a8 processor to use ios 8. None of those exist though. However, in Apple's Xcode you can compile your app and then put it in there. Just don't try and put apps from the App Store in there, because when you compile your app for the iOS emulator you actually compile it for intel and not ARM. When you compile it for devices, it's compiled for ARM. Hope I helped.
Same with VMware: you had luck with it on android because you can compile android for intel or arm. Look at android-x86. The reason apps work on androd is because they are made with java or something similar (correct me if im wrong.). So yeah. VMware is also x86, not ARM. Sorry. And a question: how are you even trying to install ios? You can't just mount the ipsw, or did you extract the DMGs? Ios uses multiple dmgs, and wont tell you when to change them! (Also, you might mount the wrong one!)
I haven't given it a go yet. I wanted to find out if it was wasn't possible first. It's a shame for developers that iOS can't be more freely used. Xcode is good but it's not the same as emulating the entire operating system. Steer clear of this one. It is fake.