Our company made application for ios for some clothing business. We would like for this app, to be widely available, so anyone on appstore can download it, but wouldn't be able to do anything useful unless he has corporate email and password (which is assigned by us (my team)). This app doesn't include payments, notifications, deep linking. The idea is, that we tell workers to go download this app on appstore (or give them link) and then send them email and password, so that they can start using this app. We tried deploying it to appstore, but they rejected it. We also tried with Enterprise, but they rejected it, because our company isn't big enough.
This is our first appstore app and we are a bit green in all this.
What are our options? For record, we are based in EU (Slovenia).
Thanks for your answers!
Related
we are developing an iPhone app as an extension of a classifieds system (web site). On that web site users can buy (prepaid) credits and use them to boost and promote their ads. Will Apple reject our app if we implement consumption of credits? We are not gonna allow buying the credits, just using them (users will still have to buy credits on the web site).
Only worrying thing I found is item 11.2 in App Store review guidelines:
11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will be
rejected.
Is there a way to contact Apple directly regarding this question?
And a add-on question. I suppose we can implement a payment gateway system like Amazon and Ebay and get a way with buying credits? I don't see any restrictions in guidelines regarding non in-app purchase system.
"In-app purchase" is only required to purchase content or extra-functionality or extra feature or to remove any type of limitations inside the application. To achieve these things you shouldn't use any other external purchase mechanism (per App Store review guidelines §11.2).
In your application, the user will only use the available credits which are already bought on your website, so there is not an issue, although you shouldn't provide any type of link to your website inside your application.
Genererally "will Apple reject this if..."-questions can only be answered as such:
Apple does as they like. If they feel this in some way breaks the review guidelines, they will reject it and tell you, but you have no way of knowing for sure until you have submitted the actual app. In your case, I can't see why they would ban it, as you are not able to use real money within the actual app, but as I said, you don't know.
If you want to try to get an answer from Apple, you can try to contact them from this page.
I finally got an answer from Apple. It took a while and it wasn't worth a wait. I think Siba was right, but I'll get back to you after we submit our app just to verify everything.
Apple replied:
Thank you for taking the time to contact us about your app design and concept questions. I understand that you would like to know if you
implement consumption credits into your app would be acceptable for
your app.
While we cannot pre-approve apps, we can address compliance questions
about specific App Store Review Guidelines or sections of the iOS
Developer Program License Agreement (PLA). I understand that this may
be a little frustrating and I apologize for any inconvenience this may
cause, however, we may only answer specific questions concerning the
following resources, unless the app is submitted for review so that we
may test the functionality.
I have an application that my client wants to give away to customers for free.
To get the full functionality, the customers would have to fill in a code.
Other customers will need to do an In App Purchase to get the full functionality.
Is this allowed by Apple or will I bump into app store restrictions.
Tried to find it, but haven't found a decent answer.
Anyone tried it before ?
Thanks !
Please see this other SO answer:
Redeem codes for inapp purchase items
I dont think it is possible to do what you want. Either everyone has to enter a code, or everyone has to do an in-app purchase.
You could also have both of these options available inside the app, but that may seem messy and informal for customers
I would say you could ask the user for a login (email + password). You could then connect to a server of yours and check the credentials. If the server knows this user because you host a list of all the users allowed to use the premium options for free, you could unlock your premium features. Otherwise, you ask Apple for the In App Purchase precedure.
We have a company account for the iOS developer program.
One of our clients wants to put the app we developed for them up under their own company name, but they've only just sent off for enrollment and as such they want to put the app up under our name until they get their enrollment though.
Is it possible to "swap" the app to their account once theirs is set up?
Thanks
This issue has come up in the past. I know it used to be that you had to get Apple to do this manually, and it took a long time to boot. I imagine they'd like to improve their process for it, and I'd suggest contacting them to ask where they are at with it.
I wouldn't do it. Apple is really slow answering support question so you can easily loose like few months to transfer the app. But it is doable as stated here: Transferring ownership of an iPhone app on the app store
Just got this email from iTunesConnect!
Apps can now be transferred from one developer to another within
iTunes Connect, for example after an acquisition or when a
distribution deal expires. Transferring the ownership of an app does
not affect the app’s availability on the App Store. All ratings and
reviews will be transferred and your customers will continue to have
access to all available app updates.
To transfer an app, go to the app’s App Summary page in the Manage
Your Applications module on iTunes Connect and click Transfer App.
Make sure that:
Your account is active
You have accepted the most current version of your contracts
Your app has at least one approved version
Your app is in the Ready for Sale, Invalid Binary, Rejected, Developer Rejected, or Developer Removed from Sale state
Any associated In-App Purchases are in the Ready to Submit, Ready for Sale, Rejected, Developer Removed from Sale, or Approved
state
You know the Apple ID of the recipient’s Team Agent and their Team ID.
For more information on app transfer, see the video tutorial on iTunes
Connect. To find answers to common questions about app transfer, see
the FAQ on iTunes Connect.
Simple question - can I put an app in Apple's AppStore which is only functional for those who have a username & password? This is for a client who wants to distribute their app only to a select number of people. The Enterprise license is not an option, and while ad-hoc distribution is, I'd prefer to go through the store.
As the material is semi-sensitive, I'd need to keep the description to a minimum (eg. this app is only for XYZ users, and requires a password), and screenshot to just a single screen of the login page.
Does anyone know of any apps in the store like this?
These apps are more readily rejected, but Apple doesn't explicitly disallow this. You will have to provide them a test login during the application approval process.
We intend to launch a free iPhone/iPad app on the AppStore.
The content will actually be accessible thanks to a subscription model (login/pwd authentication in iPhone app).
The subscription (about 100$ a month) is handled via a dedicated web server.
If used without subscription, this app will provide minimum value.
Does anyone know if this kind of subscription model can be rejected by Apple ?
I know some apps follow this model, but I'd like to have your thought on this before starting in this direction.
Thanks for your answer.
This is fine AFAIK - As long your app is free and you put in the description that it requires a subscription to whichever service. When you submit the app, you'll need to hand over details to a test account to Apple so that they can test it, but other than that it's no hassle at all.
I know of an app which works just like that on the app store right now - Spotify for iPhone. It's a music playing app which streams music from the web - but you need a Spotify premium account. When you first open the app, you have to sign in, and if you don't have a premium account it just tells you that you're not allowed in!
Javawag
There are plenty of apps which only work if I have an account somewhere, and some for which I have to pay for that account so, without knowing the specifics, there is nothing which immediately rules out your subscription model. There are even Apple apps, iDisk for example, which are useless if you don't have a $100 mobile me subscription.
If there are issues you can look at selling your subscription as an in app purchase (apple will take their 30% which should make them happy) or look at making the app more functional without the subscription.
Either way, when submitting for approval make sure to set up a sample account with a full subscription that the apple testers can use (there is space in the submission for including logins for this kind of thing).
Our app, previously approved, update was just rejected because we sell subscriptions through our website. (We have been doing this for 15 years, without giving Apple 30% of our money.) They are requiring that all subscriptions for iphone/ipad content go through in-app purchasing. I guess we will be looking at building a browser based app instead.
Cheers,
Gerry