I am developing an enterprise application for Android and iPhone platforms.
The question is if you have any way to publish on the AppStore and Android Market and make the application available only to users of this company and not available to anyone outside the company?
There are approximately 300 people who would use the App.
Thanks
Andre
I think an authentication process would be helpful in that case. However in iOS's case I would recommend to get an enterprise license, for your requirements.
For Android, it's pretty easy:
You can distribute the .apk file (the application package) without having to use the market at all. You can either post it on a web server, or otherwise send it to them via email.
Bonus: If you send it to the GMAIL account they use on their phone, the can install the apk file attachment directly.
As far as limiting distribution in the Android market, you really can't prevent people from discovering and downloading your application. Your best bet is to keep distribution local to your company using a private web server.
For iOS, check out the enterprise license.
Related
We have to deploy an enterprise ios app to employees. I came across multiple ways of doing it (http://www.apple.com/business/accelerator/deploy/app-distribution.html).
Either the MDM or the Over the Air(set up your own server for distribution) suits our need. We have to choose between these two.
I would like to know .....
What are the best MDM tools for distributing an ios enterprise app.
What are the advantages of using MDM tools over direct OTA
Thank you
A lot of this depends on the number of devices you plan on deploying to as well as whether or not you want some sort of "control" over your devices. If you could care less about harvesting the status of each device (offline, online, compliant, etc) in your fleet or controlling security settings, email settings, etc I would say skip MDM altogether. You could easily just setup a landing page (ala an App Store) via HTML, CSS, JS, etc and just have your users hit it to consume the app.
As eluded to above if you DO want to do things like see what devices are online/offline, push specific security rules to them, setup Exchange accounts, remote wipe devices, etc then definitely run with an MDM.
The answer really depends on your environment, what you wish to accomplish and how long you have before your deadline.
Regarding the "tools" everyone is playing by the same set of MDM rules set forth by Apple - the meat of the solution depends solely on how the MDM provider implemented the MDM capabilities. I'd recommend looking into AirWatch or MobileIron but understand that both typically take some spin-up time. If you need a quick solution try one of their SAAS models.
What are the best MDM tools for distributing an ios enterprise app?
Different persons have different thoughts and expectations about MDM. So, "best MDM tools" are different for different users.
I recommend you to refer any online articles (beware, there are paid ones among them) or feature comparison charts like:
Enterprise iOS (seems to be down these days) or
MDM Community
Find the one that best suits you and ask for a demo version. Most of them have a 30-day full feature demo, while some have a 14-day or 15-day demo.
What are the advantages of using MDM tools over direct OTA?
If there are more devices to which apps are to be installed, then I recommend using an MDM software because you can bulk push app to devices with MDM.
Take a look at this list.
OTA is easy to set up but difficult to 'manage'. If you need to do any kind of version control or asset management MDM is your best bet. The alternative is to add this via code in the app itself.
I got an offer to develop a simple iPhone app that would call a web service with user's credentials. An user would get the list of files that can be downloaded (.pdfs) and could then download the wanted file. Simple enough...
Now, I've had bad experience with publishing on AppStore. Basically, they refused one app because according to them our RSS reader for a online newspaper wasn't in accordance with their guidelines. They said that the application was a simple web aggregator which I won't argue now. Not now :)
So, back to the new app problem :)
I would like to know what are the options for distributing the new app. The client has a web page and wants to give it's visitor this app to get that data from their phones too.
Technically, the app doesn't have to be a native app. It can be a phoneGap solution too since it's quite simple regarding the functionality. Sincerely, I am afraid that there is no way that Apple will allow this app to be uploaded to their store being native, phoneGap...
P.S.
I would also like to know is there a way to distribute an "internal" (not publicly available) iPhone app? For example, a company needs an internal tool for their 500 employees, but can't afford to go through the process of conecting each device and compiling the app for each device individually...
If you want to sell customized apps to companies, you should consider the B2B program.
if you are in an enterprise that wants to deploy apps inside your company, the Enterprise Developer Program is a good choice.
For internal:
100 test devices.
alot of iphones with the distribution profile after the 100 devices
with the enterprise:
https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/
I'm currently developing an iPhone version of existing Android application.
Customer wants to provide his web services via mobile apps. On Android this is made in a modular way: user installs main app, and then he can download additional modules to it if needed. That way he can install only modules that he needs.
Is there a way to achieve same functionality on iPhone? I read about In-App Purchasing, but I don't know if it will work because additional functionality will not be built-in and unlocked - it needs to be downloaded and added to my app as a new module - so user's space would not be wasted with unneeded modules.
Thank you!
2.7 Apps that download code in any way or form will be rejected
From App Store Review Guidelines
Judging by the question, this is not a world-facing app - it has a specific customer. With Terente's answer in mind, do consider side-loading, AKA in-house distribution. That is - bypass the app store. The prohibition on the downloadable code is an App Store policy, not a limitation of the platform.
The enterprise contract with Apple is $300/year instead of regular $100/year. But you get to install your app on as many devices as you wish, completely bypassing the App Store. Either over the air (by browsing from the phone) or via iTunes.
Under this model, your app can download, store and run custom code all you want. The specifics of the plug-in model are up for you and your customer.
EDIT: so app store is a must. How about this: have a WebView in the project, have it download HTML pages with JavaScript in them, have code hooks for JavaScript to call. To the best of my knowledge, AppStore does not reject apps that display Web pages from the Net, and if the Web page happens to have a script, there's no prohibition on executing that script.
This violates the spirit of the rule while relying on letter and precedent. Technically speaking, JavaScript IS code. And again, technically speaking, WebView is capable of downloading and running it. And App Store is choke full of apps with WebView in them.
How will this fly with your customers, who knows.
i am asked about custom app stores a lot by clients. Is it feasible to maintain a custom appstore for a specific enterprise where all the mobile device apps are available ? and can be deployed OTA ? any framework ? does afaria do that ?
if you are talking about apple products, their license strictly forbids that. you can install android apps from any link on the web and there are many alternate appstores for droid devices. you could write a simple droid app that downloads install files. blackberry also does not need central approval from RIM to publish and download an app.
I am interested in writing apps that connect to the intranet or an extranet. In other words, I would like to make private apps for my clients, but I don't want everybody able to access it and be able to download it. Do you know if there is a way to distribute enterprise apps only to a certain people? Does Android do the same thing?
The iPhone Enterprise Developer Program is targeting exactly this scenario. It allows building and distributing apps outside of the AppStore. It does cost $299 instead of $99, however; and it's available for companies with 500+ employees and Dun&Bradstreet number only. If you are small shop working for big clients, you might want to talk with them enorolling in that program so you can develop the app for them.
Update: As #lifeIsGood commented, it looks like Apple has lifted the 500+ employees requirement. At least it's not mentioned anywhere on the Enterprise Developer Program or the Choose an iOS Developer Program comparison page.
They have also added a Custom B2B Apps distribution mechanism, which seems to target the exact scenario the OP asked about.
The answer is.... sort of. You can create ad hoc distribution, but you are limited to 100 total devices in your list. So, 100 customers. Or, you can sign up for an enterprise license, but to do so your company must have 500 employees (there may be other restrictions there too).
[edit]
One suggestion might be to create your application as SaaS - and charge for the connection/data store
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I've been looking into this too. I don't think there's a good way to do this with objective-c, but I do believe this can be done well with HTML5.
I'm reading this book http://building-iphone-apps.labs.oreilly.com/
The iPhone supports the web databases, offline apps, and with the webkit part you get icons so your app can look like a real iphone app and be distributed from a web site.
I don't know much about Android...
For Android, all you do is download the apk file to the phone. Then you go into Settings > Development and allow Non-market installs.