I have a question about enterprise apps for the iPhone. A client would like me to develop an app for her that should not appear on the iStore, but they do not meet the qualifications for an enterprise app. They would like to use the app in their organization on multiple devices without reinstalling it every time the provisioning profile expires (or paying the $100 developer fee every year). Does anyone have experience with this sort of issue, or any suggestions that might address their concerns?
There are no silver bullets here. The options for distribution are:
App Store
Ad hoc
Enterprise
Only the fourth option would allow you to avoid the developer program fee:
Jailbreak
Of course I wouldn't recommend this for use in the enterprise.
Related
I have been researching a lot about this issue, but I only get more and more confused...
Basically, what I need to do is to distribute a free ios app, but I don't want it to be available to everyone, but just to some of my customers (5 or 6 companies). I have been looking into the B2B option, but I have some questions:
The purchasing company must enroll in the Volume Purchase Program... will this be free for them?
Can I distribute the same app to more than one company?
How exactly can I perfom the distribution? Can I just publish my .ipa through one of my servers? Or do I need to go with a MDM? I have read that it is actually the purchasing company who has to get and manage the MDM?
According to Apple : "Even though custom B2B apps can be free, you must have a Paid Applications contract for your app to be visible on the Custom B2B App Store."... what does that mean?
Maybe there is another better option for me than the B2B program?
Sorry for asking so many questions, and many thanks in advance!!
María.
When distributing an iOS app b2b:
any buyer must be enrolled in the Volume Purchase Program (this is free).
you must specifically allow all buyers (there can be more than one) to purchase by specifying their Apple ID in iTunes connect.
the buyer pays whatever price you specify for the app on a per install basis and Apple takes their 30% cut. This can specify a price of zero.
distribution is entirely Apple-hosted but the app is not visible in the public app store.
The Paid Applications Contract is an agreement between you and Apple that you must enter into before using B2B distribution. Steps to make the agreement are here - http://www.pressmatrix.de/product-blog/apple-developer-itunes-connect-guide/
Note that b2b apps MUST go through Apple review process.
The only other option I see is to require your clients to enroll in the iOS Developer Enterprise program (cost of $300 per year) and then allow you to sign the app with their certificates for distribution to their employees using "over the air" installation, config utils, or an MDM.
It sounds as though you might want the iOS Developer Enterprise program.
This enables you to distribute apps ad hoc, however you might want to check whether that means to one organisation or to multiple as I'm unsure.
Comparison of the iOS developer programs
We have an application which will be used only by customers nationwide and for this reason we do not want to put the application on appstore. Shortly we want to publish it on one of our servers like a zip file then the customers will connect to that server and download the application. Yesterday when I called to apple support, one of the customer represantatives said to me that this is not possible even if we choose the enterprise license. But today I found a link which it says it can be possible. http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#featuredarticles/FA_Wireless_Enterprise_App_Distribution/Introduction/Introduction.html
Now, I want to know that is there anybody had same problem in here? What are the differences between enterprise license and company license? And the most important is that how can we do what we want to do if it is possible?
It's not officially possible.
You could try Enterprise distribution as others have mention, though it's not designed for distribution outside your company. I'm not saying it will happen, but if Apple find you're doing it they might close your developer account. I've never heard of that happening; only you can decide whether it's an acceptible risk.
Apple would say that you should put the app in the App Store. Unless Apple would reject your app I don't see why this wouldn't work. You don't have to make it easy to find and you don't have to make it cheap.
You can limit it to your customers by requiring a log in. Many, many apps do this, from Salesforce to Skype to Twitter.
Your options are:
Use solutions like TestFlight (free AFAIK) and HockeyApp (paid
service / 1 month free trial) which use UDIDs for app distribution - they
allow seamless ad-hoc distributions.
Use Apple's corporate license ($99/yr) + enterprise license
($299/yr) at the same time and use the latter to distribute your
betas/products without managing UDIDs (i.e. anyone with a link to
your server can install the app, but you can introduce serial numbers etc.).
NOTE: using enterprise license obliges user to not share the app
outside the company, but most companies breach the license agreement
(sharing the apps outside company is not traceable AFAIK).
If you plan to distribute your app outside App Store, option 2 with enterprise license is a way to go, but mind the license agreement on other hand.
The Apple representitive was wrong.
With an enterprise account you can sign an application using an enterprise distribution certificate and provisioning profile, which lets the app run on any device with no restrictions.
You can also use Over-The-Air distribution which lets people install the app through a simple http link in Safari (for example).
We use this a lot at my workplace. We have hundreds of people around the world using our (private) apps, all installed via safari.
The standard Corporate license only lets you manage a maximum of 100 devices on your developer account, but if you take this route you can still use Over-The-Air distribution with an ad-hoc distribution certificate/profile. But you have to manage each device id yourself.
If the cost of the enterprise account is not too much for you, that is definitely the route to take.
It's like Apple said, not possible.
You can add device to the ad-hoc profile, this will allow your app to run on 100 device maximum.
You can use the Enterprise license but you will still need to register the device before the app can be installed and there is still a a maximum.
See the comment of Mike Weller.
Mustafa
you can generate your OTA(Over-The-Air) file in which you set your appropriate profile(with client`s UDID) and send that link to your client and easily provide your update.with using little bit help of your web-developer.check here.
hope this is helpful to you mate...
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
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.
Can someone point out what is the difference?
And what for do we actually pay so much money, when supporting the iPhone with our hard work?
Is it right that I have to have the Enterprise Membership (299 USD), when I want to sell Apps for money? Or can I also sell Apps when I "only" have the cheaper Standard Membership (99 USD)?
Is there a fee every time I want to upload a new app to the App Store? Where is the hook in the Standard Membership?
The Enterprise Membership is only for enterprises - no app store distribution, but you can distribute your programs within your enterprise (ad-hoc). With the Standard one, you can put your apps on the app store but can only give out 100 copies of your program using ad-hoc.
There is no fee for submitting apps to the App Store once you have a Standard membership.
If you want to distribute both to your organization via adhoc and the public via App Store, you need to register two separate accounts. This was confirmed in an email from Apple Dev Support.
From Apple:
The standard plan does NOT allow distribution to iPhones (except a few development phones) outside of the app store.
The enterprise plan does NOT allow distribution to iPhone via the app store, but does permit developers to deploy their own programs within their own organization without designating those phones as 'development' phones.
-Adam
"The standard plan does NOT allow distribution to iPhones (except a few development phones)"
how many phones??