it is OK for me to publish an app on the app store which is time limited ? meaning the user can download it for free and use it for one month and then it will lock-up until he/she purchase the full app ?
is there an apple policy which says I can't ? can you give me a link to that clause ?
thanks for your help
Take a look at guideline #2.9 at Apple's review guidelines. It's always a judgement call, of course.
In general, No. Expiring trial apps are not allowed.
There might be exceptions for certain kinds of subscription services.
Related
Does anybody know if there is a limit on the number of apps I can upload/publish under my developer account? Couldn't find any reference to this.
You can publish as many apps as you can get approved by Apple. See Apple's App approval guidelines. Submitting too many similar apps may be grounds for rejections, or even removal from the Developer program (section 2.20). But there seem to exist developers with 100's of apps approved and in the iOS App store.
You can publish as many apps as you want since you have your Developer License.
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/
I want to develop one application which will be available on App store for purchase. Price of the application will same for all the customer but some feature will be unlock for particular organization. Is that allowed on app store to distribute application to all in same price but some features will be unlock for particular organization. App store will allow this type of application? Or do we need to distribute two different builds?
Thank you in advance.
Jyotsna Kadam.
Are you accepting payment for the enhanced app features outside of the "in-app" purchases stream? If so I do not think Apple will like that, but I do not know that they have any way to enforce it on their end. I am not familiar with the ToS to know if this violates them specifically., Based on my knowledge it does not.
Ultimately Apple's review is to determine that the app you have uploaded for distribution is functional and does not violate the Human Interface Guidelines. They will run the app and put it through its paces to ensure it is a quality build that the user will not want a refund for. They do not care "what" the app does per se. It is on you to provide value in what you have built.
Having the enhanced feature in your app, you will need to remember to give the Apple reviewers a way to test the "whole" app or it will certainly be rejected. I can confirm that from experience.
Good Luck!
As long you implement it with all the other Apple Guidelines in mind you shouldn't have any issues. Many apps do this, they offer main features that do not require the user to authenticate. But if the user does then they are able to access a host of other features. But with that said you need to submit you app to apple, we can only guess what apple will say when they review your app.
So I already have 2 versions out on appstore..
One app is a free but limited version.
The other is a paid unlimited. The basic layout..
I have had questions from companies wanting to buy the app and give to their employees. So they don't have to buy the app with their personal accounts..
So I was thinking of releasing a 3rd version that prompts the user for a license key on first start, if the key is valid the app starts and works until reinstalled or w/e. If the key is invalid the app just keeps prompting for a valid license.
Now I remembered reading somewhere that apple wouldn't allow apps that had no public function or something like that. Which this app wont have unless u have a valid license..
But since I do also provide a valid public version of the app, will this one get accepted? Or have they removed theese rules?
Any insight in the matter would be helpful!
Edit:
Forgot to mention that the reason im looking to use the license is because i have the same app for android and want the companies to be able to buy for both device types, not just apple devices.
Thanks
I believe you should use the B2B functionality in ITunes Connect: http://developer.apple.com/support/ios/volume-purchase-program.html
Also check: https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/volume/
I did something very similar to this some time ago, they seemed ok with it (then at least), they just asked for a license key in the complementary info (during the app submission) to go through all their usual validation tests.
Klassmating has an app in the app store that has no public functionality unless you are a student at a specific university. So it seems like you can have apps like that.
Without knowing exactly, I would assume Apple would reject such an app from the store (mainly because it would allow you to sell applications "behind their back" - i.e. sell licence keys and not using in-app purchase) :-)
However, there are two possible solutions to your problem that come to my mind:
Create and distribute gift codes (would be a problem if you had to give out too many of them).
Do an ad-hoc distribution of your app to the companies. Basically they would need your application bundle and an ad-hoc mobile provision file. Then they can simply install your application by dragging it to iTunes.
There are different official iPhone application distribution methods.
In which for your current requirement,I suppose you can use the Custom B2B Apps,where you can deliver apps directly to your business customers who have a Volume Purchase Program account.You can get more information from the link provided above.
cheers!
Yes, I too have had an app in the app store which works like this. You have to provide them with a key/licence to access the app functionality so they can test it fully.
I've had an app rejected for this very reason - required a username and password, not a licence key, but was free. They said in contravened the licence terms regarding in app purchases.
Mine allowed time limited free trials from within the app, but full functionality was restricted to purchases outside the app. Apple wanted their 30% cut of the subscription cost so it was no dice for us.
On the other hand, the app store review process is seemingly entirely random, so who knows.
Sir i had developed an iphone application and released on cydia, which i seen it to be cracked in with in a day, later i came to know about the DRM , can any one please help me how to intehgrate DRM with my application
Thanks in advance
I agree with BoltClock, its semi-pointless to have app protection in your app, I have several in Cydia. With my largest app, I do have my own implementation of "security". I wont give away my secret, but there's a way you can check against the Cydia Store API to see if your app has been legitimately purchased. Get with Jay Freeman (saurik) on how to obtain the API for this. He has written up a few guides on his backend API for Developers to check if the app has been purchased.
Alternatively, you can provide a "Free" version of your app, or a "Trial" to allow users to try your app, and if they like it, they can buy it.
A time-sensitive feature may be useful too, that is something you can look into.
Is there a way to confirm (programmatically) that the application was purchased from AppStore?
Or, maybe, there is a way to get a list of devices IDs from AppStore that purchased my app?
The reason is the willing to determine if the application was legally purchased or not...
I know that there is a way to know that the in-app purchase took place.
Maybe I can check for a paid app purchase too?
The solution may be inside the iPhone app or some check in server side.
The application that I develop is about to get a content from the web server.
Usually (by browsing my client's site) this content is not free and he wants to be sure that users that get the content by using an iPhone app (that I develop) did pay for the app.
Check out these related questions:
Iphone App store - Verifying paid customer
How to programmatically determine if DRM was removed from iPhone application?
Determining if an iPhone is Jail broken Programmatically
My previous Stack Overflow question may help you out: Reducing piracy of iPhone applications
No, but see this related question for information on how to potentially detect that your app has been tampered with in order to allow it to run as a bootleg.
The in-app-purchase-style verification has struck me as a good way to do this, but Apple doesn't currently support it. It might be worth a bug report.
I don't know of anyway of "confirming that the application was purchased from the appStore". I don't think there's any bit that's flipped or "thing" you can check to see.
Sorry.
But if you do learn of such a thing, let me know.