I am developing custom iPad applications for clients. So far I know that you cannot distribute the same app to more than 100 iOS devices. Although I have read that this method of deploying applications is meant for "beta testing" and that I have to renew the profile every three months.
I was wondering, is there a workaround to this issue? I simply cannot be updating deployment profiles to every one of my clients I'm deploying a custom app to.
Can someone provide me with some information/advice?
Your options are somewhat limited for a custom app. These are really the best options you have for your clients. With proper security and authentication the app store could a decent solution.
Deploy App to the app store
Deploy an enterprise application (Recommended, Requires Dun & Bradstreet Number)
Require that the app is for use on jailbroken devices
Enterprise deployment may solve this problem for you, but to the best of my knowledge Apple will not approve you until you have a large number of employees (500+).
The three month expiration of profiles is only for development profiles. If you produce an Ad Hoc build, these profiles are good for one year.
Update August 2011: Apple now allows iOS developers to write custom apps for businesses. Your customer needs to enroll in the Volume Purchase Program, but presumably after that you can make apps available only to them and not to the general public through the App Store. (Disclaimer: I have not yet done this myself.)
More information on Apple's page about the Volume Purchase Program.
There are different types of developer program that you can be enrolled on. For this you would need the iOS Developer Enterprise Program
Related
I am developing three in-house apps and we want to distribute the apps to 40 iPads. But we dont want them all to be registered as development devices, we want to have the apps in the store. When I tried ad-hoc distribution, it never worked. I tried to install the apps after registering the device.
So I thought is there anyway that we can distribute the in-house apps through app store instead of going through this painful app distribution?
Presumably you would have an Enterprise Developer license ($299/year) which is for exactly the scenario you have: you want to develop and distribute apps to your organization. This type of license exists precisely for this purpose and because Apple doesn't really want these kinds of apps -- apps that are not generally for everyone -- to be on the App Store.
To distribute your apps under this license you need to look at Apple's Mobile Device Management architecture. It basically lets you setup your own legitimate "store" through which your apps would be distributed to your organization's devices. It is not intended for you to sell your apps to the general public, bypassing Apple. No, no.
I cannot seem to find a good link for you. Google for "apple mobile device management documentation" or "apple mdm"; there are a lot of interesting PDFs that come up.
Bottom line is that this is, I think, a fair bit of work to setup this infrastructure. But necessary if you want to do internal app distribution the right way.
https://testflightapp.com/ it's a very good website to distribute Apps to the people you want. You should really check it out.
It's not through App Store, though.
Check out this documentation from Apple, should provide you with the necessary information for in-house distribution: http://help.apple.com/iosdeployment-apps/mac/1.1/#app43ad6a6a
My organization has had some luck using MobileIron. I believe the piece is called "Enterprise App Storefront".
You setup a MobileIron server and (one option is to) get a MobileIron-managed app directly from the App Store to connect up to it.
My company bosses want to create a native version of a currently web-based app that will be available to their existing customers (currently a few thousand).
They say it is imperative that the application be available for downloading from the app store.
However the app would only be of any use to customer who already have an account (and would be useless to anybody else who downloaded the app).
Is this actually possible to submit such a thing to the app store?
There are dozens of Apps in the App Store that where they are only usable if you are an existing customer. Look at all the banking related ones for example.
AFAIK, you cannot restrict the intended users when distributing through the AppStore.
What you can do is apply for an iOS Developer Enterprise Program, though you'd be installing the app directly to the devices (requires physical presence of the devices).
You could also use a service like TestFlight, though their terms probably just allow deployment for testing purposes.
What I'd go for is getting the app to the AppStore anyway, as long as your app doesn't include confidential content. You could advise in the description not to install the app unless they're your company's clients.
Team,
I would like to know how to set up appstore for its enterprise program, with only iOS applications. To be more clear on my question, I run a business and I have applications created for my business which will be used only by customers to whom I give privileges. I don't want to put these business apps into apple's app store, where anyone can browse and install the application.
Is it possible to maintain a store for my business alone where only those who I provide access to, can be able to browse and install the applications?.
Yes you can.
Thats what companies with products like Afaria and Appearean to name a few do.
In a word: no. You can't deliver apps publicly (outside your own enterprise) to non-jailbroken phones, except via the app-store.
Maybe TestFlight comes close to what you think?
The target device(s) get a link with which they get to your TestFlight site. When they visit it the first time, they'll have to register their device via a profile and then get a testflight app from which they can download your app as often as they want.
Con: No payment possible.
cheers
Finn
Looking for the same thing and found this https://developer.apple.com/programs/volume/b2b/. Its for Business 2 business distriubtion
You might be interested in the iOS Developer Enterprise Program, although it doesn't fit your description exactly.
You can't.
Deployment of iOS apps to any non-employee's stock OS devices, on 100 or more devices, or for a longer duration than past your Ad Hoc Distribution certificate expiration date, requires submitting your App to the iOS App store, and distributing it from there if approved by Apple. This is true for all individual, company or enterprise developers.
For employees of D&B rated corporations, or for fewer than 100 devices for only some number of months, there are other options.
Is there any way to push apps to an iphone through an iPhone explorer or something else, where you can bundle up the ipa and copy it onto an unlocked device (or non unlocked even)?
How can I push an app to my device without putting it on a cydia repo? Are there instructions on how cydia does this, or would this be out of my depth (considering I dont know the intricacies of the iphone).
This is a customized app I have developed, I just need a way to push it to the device without worrying about the approval process, and I want to keep it on the device past the 3 month provisioning profile period.
After spending much time on internet for this question I present the following.
Summary
iOs doesn't allow sideloading of unsigned apps. The only way to
currently do that is jailbreak.
But there is a work around.. You could beat that using
MacBuildServer
The signing process MacBuildServer uses to cleverly skirt this
limitation is to have you use your own certificate, or to simply use
their certificate from the iOS developer enterprise program to sign
the compiled app (again, for testing purposes).
The iOS Developer Enterprise Program was designed to allow companies
to develop in-house apps for use within their organization, without
publishing them on the App Store.
An example of a business that would be part of this program would be
an event coordinating business that uses these in-house iOS apps to
check people in and perform other tasks.
MacBuildServer's demo gives you a three-click process to build any open-source iOS app you can find on GitHub, and sign it with an
enterprise certificate that allows jailbreak-free sideloading
for your own testing purposes.
Disclaimer
The ideas that are presented here are not my own i found this on internet.visit the reference for more details.
Reference
No. If you're working under the iOS Developer Program the only real way to distribute your app is via the app store. Other than that, you're stuck with ad hoc distribution and the time limit that comes with that. However, if you qualify for the iOS Enterprise Program (i.e. you're a business), you can sign up for that program and then distribute your apps in-house without going through the app store.
Without jailbreaking, your options are: app store, ad hoc (with time
limit), and join the Enterprise program
There is one other option. It's possible to create web-app and then add it as a bookmark.
But the obvious downsides are:
It's html. Even with html5 you're not going to get access to the camera etc...
2: It's open to the public (Although it's easy block access with standard security).
However question was asked long ago, but I think now it is possible with XCode 7.
I want to build an application for the iPhone to be used inside a customer enterprise (very small, only 5 to 10 devices). But since they will be paying the application development, I don't want to distribute that application to the world inside the App Store in iTunes. How can I distribute this app to my customer? Should I get the Enterprise level subscription from the Apple Developer Program? Since I work as a freelancer, I think I can't subscribe to that program.
You should have the client purchase the Enterprise subscription.
The alternative, since there are only a few devices, is to regularly provide provisioning profiles for all devices. This sounds like a huge hassle to me. The profiles expire every 3 months last I checked, but it has changed before.
If you really want to scrape the barrel, there is also jailbreaking :)