As far as costs of doing business goes, $1250 is a god damn bargain.
Really wish people would stop whining about $100 development certificate. It's a negligible cost in the face of the actual App development cost.
Whatever you're selling, it's way too expensive if you can throw $1250 out the window as the "cost of doing business" as some freelancer developing an "app" that is supposed to run on some fiddly little device. The entire Apple ecosystem is way overpriced, from their consumer products to their stock, as well as all the little "apps" that run on those things. My pocketbook is staying firmly closed when it comes to anything Apple.
Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I get my work done on a real PC on my desktop, and when I have to talk to someone on the phone, I use a land-line, because cell phone reception is insufferably poor, spotty, and unreliable out here in the boondocks. A cell phone is great to carry when I'm out and about town in case of emergency, but as a rule I buy the cheapest piece-of-junk cell phone I possibly can, and I interact with the thing as little as possible. I resent the idea that I'm supposed to waste so much of my time to fiddle with some little pocket device encumbered with a thousand patents to text and email people who don't have the time to communicate in real life---and I'd have to "jailbreak" the thing if I ever wanted to interact with it on my own terms anyway.
You need to look at the big picture of what you're developing apps for. Someday people will realize and learn to work with the inherent limitations of interfacing with a little piece-of-junk device that fits in your pocket, and then maybe it won't be so bad, but until then, please spare me the hype and all the stupid cutesy little "apps."