Anyone been through the Device to Phone over bluetooth obstacle course?

[jnz]

I'm kicking around options to communicate with my ARM device. USB, ZigBee, Bluetooth, Wifi, whatever.  The issue is I need simple for the end user and I need data over the internet for updates. So I'm leaning towards Bluetooth using native app on Android and iPhone, and maybe a Windows native app as well.

The issues I'm having...

 
• I do not have the time to develope my own bluetooth stack, not even sort of. I'll want to buy a pre-made add-on solution and design my PCB for it from day one. I want to keep the costs under $8 at 1k units. I basically just need UART to Bluetooth adapter.
• Apparently iPhone has this thing called mFi where each Bluetooth device needs to be mFi certified in order to use serial over bluetooth. What the hell apple!? Ok, so does anyone make a mFi certified add-on? Because getting mFi cert is probably 10k+ which I could handle, but is also suited for people making Airplay devices and big mfgs that using a lot more functionality than I am
• Any good tips for protocols, APIs, areas of difficulty that I should know to avoid? It seems there are work-arounds for Apple using Gamekit, there are all sorts of Android feautes/issues. As far as devices go, I just need to support the last two or three versions of phones and tablets. I'll likely hire this out, so if anyone knows a good consultant group that might want to design the native apps, I'm looking. Or any other random info anyone has on this topic.
• I have full access to TCP/IP, PPP, Webserver, and all sorts of networking stacks for ARM, so I guess I could handle much more than serial comm over BT, but I'm trying to keep things simple. Not sure if there is a more complex initially, but cheaper long term solution that would utilize networking over BT

Much appreciated!

[Stonent]

I don't know why Apple does this.  Nearly anything that I've found that is bluetooth that is not a keyboard or related to audio, just plain doesn't work with an iphone.

I can't use my Bluetooth OBDII device with any apple products because it uses Blueotooth SPP.  They make some that do work with apple devices but they work over wifi and you have to make a peer to peer setup with the phone/pad.  Bass-ackwards to me...

[jnz]

From my research it seems Apple is OK with BTLE but not BT-classic. So, yes, I can use BTLE, but I'm kicking around if the costs be a USB connection are worth it. BT has huge advantages for me but a lot more programming on the native app side.

I need someone that's done firmware programming, web programming including SQL and intensive JavaScript, and also native app programming... Seems like that's going to be a hard person to find :/