Distributing business app on App Store that requires an account [closed] - iphone

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Our business is currently looking at developing iPhone versions of applications we build for our clients. The apps are currently used internally within these businesses and are not (currently) web-facing.
A stumbling block seems to be deployment - requiring all of our clients to sign up for the iPhone enterprise programme won't work, as this is a big ask for companies who outsource their IT infrastructure (e.g. this simple task will probably end up costing lots of time and money and become a project in itself!).
I've been doing some research and haven't found a straight answer so far - is Apple happy to distribute applications which require logins to existing (paid for, business) services? I guess my main examples in this case would be spotify (not business but requires paid account) or Salesforce.com (again, requires paid account).

While there are many examples of it being allowed (Spotify, Twitter and Facebook clients, etc.), here's one which Apple rejected for requiring registration:
http://readitlaterlist.com/blog/2010/08/version-2-2-rejected-new-rejection-reason-from-apple-may-have-major-implications/
However many people on Hacker News considered this to be a mistake on the reviewer's part, rather than something in Apple's guidelines:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1626034

Is Apple happy to distribute applications which require logins to existing (paid for, business) services?
Yes, there are very many examples:
Amazon.co.uk and all the other shopping apps might be examples
Streetcar
iDisk (by Apple)
Find My iPhone (by Apple)
Sky+
...

Sklivvz is right, the only gotcha is they will already need a login to your service. If you let them create and pay for an account inside the app, you will have to use Apple's in app purchase and Apple gets 30%.
cf App Review Guidelines, section 11 (Purchasing).
Alternatively, you can launch Mobile Safari from the App, and after registering you can pass their login details back to the app using a custom URL handler (eg. myappid://somestring/) here is an explanation of custom URL schemes http://www.idev101.com/code/Objective-C/custom_url_schemes.html

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Apple rejected my app as my app doesn't have FB login via Apple SDK [closed]

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I'm building a simple iPhone app with my developer. The main purpose of the app is to simply open my site on its mobile browser. In my site there are two log in options:1. Login via Google and 2. log in via Facebook.
But when my developer went to register this on istore the app has been rejected.
Here is what I received from my developer:
"As per Apple’s guidelines the app should offer features which should provide some interaction with the iOS device like your website offer login using Facebook which should actually be using iOS’s own FB login. Further the website offers searching for contacts, so we can have something like saving those contacts on device memory.
However, all these changes will involve efforts which need planning and are also not small tweak which can be made today and resubmit the app. "
So he is asking me to include log in via FB using APPle SDK otherwise my app can not be submitted.
Can anybody help me to solve this issue?
Thanks
Apple's AppStore Review Guidelines include the following:
Apps that are not very useful, unique, are simply web sites bundled as
Apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be
rejected
As I understand it from your description, your app simply shows your website. You should think about some additional features that could be integrated. One that apple seems to have included in your rejection might be a "native login" using the Facebook SDK for iOS.

AppStore and alternatives for the following app

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/

google maps licensing for use with ios app [closed]

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I've developed an iPhone application that sends off emails which contain google maps, embedded using the Google Static Maps API. The app will be for sale on the iTunes store (ie not free).
Do I need to get a Google Maps Business account? If so, how do I even apply for an account?
A point in the right direction would be appreciated. I contacted google but got the default reply that created more questions that it answered. eg it said:
"Note:
a) The sale of a product with Google Maps integration requires a special approval and associated licence upgrade."
but it didn't say how to do any of this.
Any tips would be appreciated
As per Google:
Usage Limits
The Google Places API has the following query limits:
Users with an API key are allowed 1 000 requests per 24 hour period.
Users who have verified their identity through the APIs console are allowed 100 000 requests per 24 hour period. A credit card is required for verification, by enabling billing in the console. We ask for your credit card purely to validate your identity. Your card will not be charged for use of the Places API.
So all you need is to give your Credit Card information and pay nothing.
You are not allowed to use the free Google Maps API on the iPhone if the App is for Sale unless you use Android with Google's store. See 9.1.2 Exceptions: https://developers.google.com/maps/terms
(Free Access) does not apply if your Maps API Implementation is used in a mobile application that is sold for a fee through an online store and is downloadable to a mobile device that can access the online store.
A commercial Maps Api License is too expensive for most cases.
Note: This mostly affects Webviews, because the built in Mapkit on newer iOS serves Apple Maps, not Google Maps.

Best way to do Payment integration in Mobile Platform? [closed]

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Today's world is mostly converted to mobile platform from the desktp platform and most of the payment trasaction, purchase and ecommerce facilities available via mobile applicaitons.
So, What is the best way to do payment integration in mobile application specially in iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry and Windows platform? There are plenty of third party API available out there but which one is the secure method to do paymaent gateway for mobile application development.
(1) For iOS platform we have inApp Purchase but it takes almost 30% to the apple and owner will get only 70% of the payment. Still there are some limitations are there as we can't provide the physical goods and services via inApp Purchase.
(2) Paypal is the secure method of payment gateway and it is also implemented in many of the mobile applications.
(3) Direct credit card payment option is also great one to use.
(4) There are many third party APIs available out there.
So, Here for mobile application development which is the best method to use specially for iOS platform like iPhone and iPad application that can be easily approved by apple without any problem.
We have two APIs for payment integration with iOS apps. The first uses app to app integration where transaction data is sent from the developer's app to our payment app. The other API allows developers to seamlessly integrate our payment app functionality into their app. Both APIs allow for easy approval by Apple and removal of the PCI-DSS compliance burden. For more info you can start here: http://developers.moblized.com/.
Update: We'll have similar APIs for Android by April 15, 2012.
If you have in app purchases, they HAVE to use Apple's API or else your app will be rejected.
The only way to (sort of) get around it is to have the purchase be on a website and it will unlock something on your app. You can't link to the website from your app though so it's kind of useless if you don't already have users visiting your website. This is how the Kindle app does it since Apple forced the use of their in-app purchase API.

iPhone for Intranet [closed]

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It started one day while I was using my iPod Touch: wouldn't it be cool to have XXX function (from our internal desktop application) available on the iPhone as an native app.
I had that idea because (A) I think our current bulky desktop internal 6+ years old application suite needs a major face lift, and (B) instead of continuing our waterfall development methodology, which usually resulted in a project canned after tens of people spending months on something that no user cares about. I hope that we can start doing lots of tiny projects with 2 week iteration cycles using Agile methodology.
Oh, I also want to find an excuse to use XCode in the office.
After researching, I found out that pretty much NO COMPANY does iPhone native intranet applications because no company wants their internal development needs to be controlled by Apple who tends to kill cool apps like Google Talk. Since our company is ultra concerned about security and safety, the phrase "using a jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch" is the same as saying "please fire me".
So I came up with plan B: using ComponentOne iPhone Studio to do a iPhone optimized intranet web application. I spent 2+ weeks and it is about finished. My supervisor seemed very excited about it, so hopefully we can turn it into a long term project.
My question is: have any of you tried writing an iPhone application (either native app or web based app) for your company's internal use, and what are the technical and political challenges?
I've written three internal applications (native) for my company.
We are able to use ad-hoc distribution (less than 100 users ; do not qualify for the 500 person enterprise program).
It's been great. The execs love it, our salespeople are using them like crazy. A few new customers have already been credited to being impressed by our tech and coming on board when they saw our apps.
Win-win-win so far.
We've talked about it some at my office, but that's as far as it's gone. The Enterprise developer license allows you to control the distribution of your app within your organization, not Apple. The AppStore isn't involved at all.
If you write your web applications well it is very easy to add an interface for most mobile devices not just iphone.
We use things like: intranet.domain.com/application/mobile/
We always create our web apps with layers of functionality so that the UI side is easily switchable. My favorite at the moment is MVC style. This way you just have a UI designer work on the mobile interface but all the underlying business logic is the same which ever device you are using.
I would also still love to write native iPhone apps for our systems as they are just much cooler :-) Damn you Apple for not allowing us.
I build all of my iPhone app as we apps using ASP.NET. ComponentOne has Studio for iPhone which lets you build ASP.NET sites that look and behave like native iPhone apps. It's a great solution for Microsoft developers like me who do not have access to Apple machine or Dev Kits.
I used it to build a mobile version of our website that calls the same class library our main website does. This is my favorite part of the concept, using my existing model.
Here is the link where you can read more about the iPhone ASP.NET controls