I'm enrolled in my company's apple developer program, but am looking to develop apps outside of work.
My partner and I plan to develop apps together and publish them to the Apple App Store, but by the looks of things, we can only do this if we are registered as a business and have business licenses etc. As this is just a small, joint venture, we have not really set ourselves up as a business.
Is there any way around this? I can enroll as an individual, but then my partner would also need to enroll, and we would only be able to publish under one of our names.
Related
Is it possible to use the Enterprise program to distribute for people in my society private apps, but making them available only as paid application ?
(They could use their iTunes Account to pay the apps).
Sincerely
You can either distribute an app through the public App Store (standard Apple Developer Program) or internally for your company's employees through the Apple Enterprise Program. For the latter you will need to host your own store.
It's not possible to "mix" those two distribution channels and charge money through iTunes Accounts. You can probably integrate your own payment system in your Enterprise app.
Due to recent events, the Apple Enterprise program is getting more attention and it might be harder to distribute apps outside of the terms of use.
Distribute proprietary, in-house iOS, watchOS, and tvOS apps within your organization. Securely host and deploy apps to your employees' devices.
You might want to check out the full official docs as well as terms of use: https://developer.apple.com/programs/enterprise/
Just to give you a little background, we have a software application which anyone can access through web. It is a very specific application for banking and retail industry. Currently this application is accessible on web as well as on "Windows tablet kiosk" and we have license based pricing. Windows tablets access the data through web services.
So for example, XYZ Bank can order 100 windows tablet licenses and we can charge them for the application based on our pricing model for 100 license.
We are getting lot of requests from our clients to develop the same app on iPad and we are currently researching on deployment options for the same. As per my understanding, Apple has very stringent rules when it comes to App download.
In above scenario, where organization needs a licence from us to run the application what kind of deployment strategy we should go with? I can think of 2 options:
1) To deploy the app on iTunes stores and ask the organization to download it from the iTunes store. They will have to contact us to get the license in order to run the App. Is it legal? Since we have license based pricing model, we'll keep our App for free and will charge organization for license.
2) Should we just get enterprise license for our clients/organization and deploy the system on their iPad under that enterprise license.
According to me option # 1 is the way to go. But I just want to know if this is OK to distribute the App for free and than charge for licenses? In any case this is more of a web app and iPhone is just an extension.
Option #1 is only ok in a special case, when you have a general subscription model for your service outside the App Store/IAP process, like Spotify does, for example. There's a special paragraph in the App Store guidelines for that, 11.14. But if your customers pay a one-time fee just to use the iPad app, I think Apple would consider this as circumventing the App Store payment model and would reject your app because of rule 11.1 of the guidelines.
But Apple just set up a new distribution model for cases like yours, the "Custom B2B apps". It's a way to distribute custom apps for specific customers through the App Store, without the need for Enterprise Licenses for each customer. See
http://www.apple.com/business/vpp/
Only customers that you have approved before will be able to see their custom app in the App Store. Payment goes through Apple and they keep 30% as usual. This program is US-only now but will be rolled out to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, and UK soon.
If you don't want to give the 30% away, your only option is indeed #2, building the app with an Enterprise License of your client. The only real downside I see is that you have to get each client to enroll in the developer program and renew it every year. If you have many clients, that could become a problem.
But once they've set you up as an agent or admin, the process is smooth. E.g. you can use a MDM service for OTA updates to your client's devices and they can set up an inhouse app store, so their user experience is almost the same as when using Apple's app store.
I've just decided to go with option #2 for an enterprise project for 3-5 clients. I would say that if you have more than about 10 clients, the extra work with all the different certificates, distribution methods etc. wouldn't be worth it and I'd rather pay Apple 30% to handle that and go with the Custom B2B program (if it's available in your country).
Option 1 is more preferable.
You can have a free app on the app store.
After that you can have a option for licensing. and from coding you can maintain that in order to use the app they needs to purchase the license.
Lots of app does that as they have their signup based on the Device ID.
I have worked with some of the apps who uses to give their services like SIP Calling with licensing like that.
so with option 1 you can achieve it.
thanks
We are developing an enterprise application and I looked at the following options:
1. Putting on itunes.
Cannot do this since our application is to be used only by our clients with a login and passwrod.
You cannot have login based app in itunes:
http://appreview.tumblr.com/post/952395621/cannot-be-intended-for-a-limited-audience
2. Using iOS Developer Enterprise
Cannot do this as :
The iOS Developer Enterprise Program should be used to develop and distribute proprietary in-house applications to your own employees within your own company. As such, your company would not qualify for direct Program enrollment in this situation. We would suggest that your client apply for enrollment in the Program, and, once enrolled in the Program, your client may add the appropriate developers from your company to their iOS Development Team.
Our client cannot add us.
3. Adhoc distribution.
This is only for 100 beta testers.
So are there any other options if I want our client to donwload our app.
Provide some minimal functionality to all users that does not require any proprietary data, but have the app download all proprietary data and enable proprietary features only after your enterprise customer logs in. Then submit it to the App store.
There are plenty of examples in the app store. Banking apps: they might advertise the bank, have maps to the nearest branch, perhaps include a calculator of some sort, but of course don't allow any actual banking features or download any account information until after a customer logs in. Security apps: provide a public weather web cam view to everybody, but a security cam view only to people who buy their expensive $100K security camera system.
The example private golf course app could have included public information on the club, the current weather, map info on local restaurants, and maybe who to contact to apply for the $10M membership, but then added private club info (calendar, roster) only to paid members after log in.
Make sure to create a test account with dummy (non-proprietary) data and give it to Apple.
You can absolutely have a login based app. I have helped someone submit one that got approved that sounds very similar to the one you are describing. Also, think about the Netflix app for example, login based, limited to Netflix users (although this is probably not as limited as you are talking about).
Your solution is clearly "Using iOS Developer Enterprise"...
Can you be more explicit about the "Our client cannot add us." ?
You can get your client to sign up to the iOS enterprise agreement so that they can install it on their phones, and you are simply a team member for them. That also shifts the liability for the app onto them, should anything go wrong.
An already running Website which has a medium number of paying users (the customers pay 10$ per month for the account) asked me if I am willing to program an iphone app which helps extending the functionality of the website.
They most probably want to give the application away for free - they think, that the iphone app will be a strong argument to get more customers willing to pay the monthly fee for the web-account.
In the Android-Marketplace it is quite clear pointed out, that you are not allowed to earn money other then the price for the app.
android developer distribution agreement:
"4.5 Non-Compete. You may not use the Market to distribute or make available any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the distribution of Products outside of the Market."
In the Microsoft App Store there are quite similar terms. But you cannot find a license agreement for the iphone app store where it is not allowed to give away free apps which are able to connect to paid websites.
There are some blogs out there where you can find rejection criterias for the iphone:
http://10base-t.com/unofficial-appstore-rejection-criteria/
I also read the 'iphone developer program license agreement', but still it is not clear to me.
The kindle for iphone is a quite similar example to the above mentioned situation, this app is approved, but I think that amazon is paying a not disclosed amount of money to apple. I'm not convinced that our application will get approved.
Are there any terms and conditions which I didn't read.
Thanks in advance,
Tom
The "non-compete" clause means that you cannot post an "android market" to the market, thus distributing apps and competing with Google directly.
On top of the agreement it says that "Products" (capital P) refers to "Software, content and digital materials created for Devices in accordance with the Android SDK and distributed via the Market.".
In other words, Android apps.
Translation: "4.5 Non-Compete. You may not use the Market to distribute or make available any Android Application whose primary purpose is to facilitate the distribution of Android Applications outside of the Market."
This means that "yes", you are able to use a paid service outside of the Android Market with your Android app distributed through the Android Market. Otherwise, I couldn't use my paid Skype account with my copy of the free Skype app on the iPhone - nor on Android (does it even exist?)
The Wall Street Journal app is free, but you have to pay them for most content. As far as I know, it's not an in-App purchase, either.
There are lots of examples of free apps that only work with external paid-for services. The prime example on my iPhone is the Spotify player.
My impression is that you will be OK if the app is a free download. What they are likely to object to is a paid-for app that requires additional payment through a non-appstore mechanism to be used. Apple are concerned about the ripped-off feeling people get if they pay for something that they then can't use without additional payment. If the app is free then the user can just delete it (although they'll probably leave you a shitty review if the Spotify app is any measure).
Bear in mind that you will have to provide Apple with an account on your external system set up for testing during the approval process.
I am writing an iPhone apps for in-house use. There is 4 of us in the project team. We need to deploy the application to around 20 iTouch devices via ad-hoc distribution mode and there is no intention to put the application in the App store.
The question is, should I go for the Standard Individual Program or the Standard Company Program?
Note: I am not asking to choose between Standard and Enterprise. Since I only need ad-hoc distribution and the application is running on only 20 devices, I believe the standard program should be good enough for this purpose. However, for the standard program, there is option for Standard Individual Program or the Standard Company Program.
revised response:
This info is readily available on the iphone developer application page. Both accounts allow ad-hoc distribution. The enterprise program allows in-house distribution or proprietary apps for companies with 500 or more employees.
original response:
You have to go for the corporate program. It's the only one that allows you to distribute apps within an organization as far as I know. The individual account is only for apps that you intend to sell in the app store.
Review the licenses for each program with your legal team if you have one. I believe you will need the corporate one.
If the company has less than 500 people, you don't mind a slightly more difficult distribution system, and the $200 difference is really important, than register with the standard program as a company. Otherwise, sign up for the enterprise program.
You should only register as an individual if the company does not own the software being distributed and doesn't want to own the software. Which I doubt is the case.
For any business with multiple users I would recommend getting a Corporate account. That way you can have a team leader, and separate account logins for each member of the team.
For a Corporate account you will need to provide a legal contact at your company who has authority to bind your company to the terms and conditions of the Apple agreement.
Check out my post here for a bit more detail about what you have to do, and how long it takes:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1876333/how-long-does-it-take-to-get-an-iphone-app-into-the-app-store-closed
To clarify: the iOS Developer Enterprise Program does not require that your company has 500 employees or more. This restriction was lifted in September 2010.
To learn more check out the article "Apple iOS Enterprise Developer Program Summary" at http://www.apperian.com/technote/Apple_iOS_Enterprise_Developer_Program
Please note that access to the actual "license agreement" requires that you agree to the SDK License first (it is not shown to the public).
Here's the main differences if you get the Standard Company program (and not plain old standard program):
You get to run a team in the provisioning portal, i.e. you can invite other iOS developers to be in your team, and they can download provisioning profiles for your app, etc.
You need info like your DUNS company number and a company address
Your organization's legal entity name would be listed as the seller of your apps on the App Store (if you published there)
The first item is the most pertinent. Without a dev team, only the person signing up will have access the provisioning portal.