What are the available tools for for mobile device emulation?

There really doesn't seem to be one good tool that can emulate WP7, iOS, Andriod and Blackberry.

Does anyone know of one? Or know the best method for each? It almost seems开发者_开发知识库 to make most sense to just get a hold of one of each of these devices if you are serious about developing on them.

I'm not sure there will ever be a single tool that fits the bill, since the devices are all very different (in terms of OS) and owned by competing companies.

My personal experience says you can build apps using the emulators without an actual device, however I would strongly recommend having a device. Using the mouse in an emulator is very different to a touchscreen - I had levels in my game that were easy in the emulator with mouse/keyboard but incredibly difficult on the actual device.

For an app, you're more likely to get away with using the emulator for a longer period (though you may need to abstract things like GPS to test them well on some platforms), but for something where quick reactions and accuracy are important (like a game), I think it's better to have the hardware early on.

I've seen people dual-booting Android and WP7 on some devices, but I don't know enough to say whether it's viable to develop this way to avoid buying dev devices.