>Or Create and Account without buying a $1300 iPhone
There are several ways to develop internet working applications each with their pros and cons.
Platform dependent mobile development for Android or IPhone gives developers api access to the core machine hardware and it's security enhancements. The cost is that you have to maintain similar code bases for each base andriod, iphone, and web.
Desktop apps are essentially Chrome and plain old Javascript, extremely heavy but quick to get up and running for sites. Can take gigs of space for one app.
Native web apps are essentially JavaScript frameworks that have compile code bridges without access to those native api's. Author once write for all platforms. They tend to have slower execution and tend to be a little wonkier.
Progressive web apps are like native but only JavaScript and use CSS heavily but can be run like desktop apps also. It's the best of all worlds but requires expert knowledge of the underpinnings.