Heyo Guys
I got a question about the deployment of my App. I am currently doing contracting for a small to medium size business. The app is (as the title suggests) developped for iOS.
The app should be for internal use only so putting it on the app store would not be a good idea.
I have read about the enterprise developer program which sounds pretty much like the thing I need except for 2 aspects :
1. 299 per year
2. Enterprise apps are intended for really big companies.
Is there any other way to distribute the app to the 10+ people working at the business I am currently working for ?
Thanks for your advice
EDIT : Thanks for all your answers. I have plans to then further distribute the app to other companies (the app is for driving schools) so that means that there would again be a problem if each of those companies had to buy a licence in order to use my app
It doesn't matter about the size of the company, If they want an internal application not hosted on the App Store then the Enterprise program is the way to go.
This is something that the client should be paying for though, they could then use a service like Hockey to host their applications for employees.
If the company only needed the app for say 10 devices, they could technically just get away with an AdHoc build but there are drawbacks:
AdHoc builds are intended for testing rather than full scale distribution.
The devices would have to be registered on the developer portal, this means that if a new device needs adding then you would have to add it then re-generate a new provisioning profile.
You're limited on how many devices you can distribute to.
The provisioning profile will expire after 3 months.
Provisioning profiles currently expire after a year just like enterprise profiles however Apple have been known to change this.
If it's 10 people, you can ask them to hand over their devices and you install using Xcode. For 50 you can make them beta testers, but it is a pain. Testflight will work, but you have to upload a version once a month which they have to download. All of these might be against your license.
It would be by far the best if the company you are working for buys an enterprise license. (YOU can't buy the enterprise license, because the users are not YOUR employees).
You can distribute via TestFlight, but those 10 users will eat in to your limit of 25 total Beta testers.
You can explicitly take the target users' device UUIDs and provision your app to be able to run on them. Then, you can create ad-hoc deployments of your app which can be installed directly on the target devices using iTunes, or distribute them using something like Crashlytics.
You can add 100 devices per year as a registered developer.
Related
The idea to distribute release version of iOS application to specified users only. This app shouldn't be available for any person except who was selected (using AppleID or something).
Is it possible to avoid using Enterprise Developer Program?
VPP as I understand will not work here, because app will be available to all business users.
Ad-Hoc distribution doesn't work for me: 6 months expiration, headache with udids, 100 device limitation.
Thanks!
I have a system which I want to present to potential investors. It is a client / server system and the client runs on mobile devices.
The client can only be used when certain people are connected to the server via another app, so I currently don't want to upload it to the app store for public use.
When I present the system to investors I can make sure that the correct people are logged in and run the demo.
I read online and didn't find a suitable distribution mechanism. I don't want to bother my potential investors with details about finding their device ids so I don't think I can use ad-hoc distribution. I can't upload it to the app store because the service isn't available 99% of the time. Any other options"?
Thanks.
Well you options are limited, you can open a new Apple Developers Account for Enterprise distribution. But the license for these distribution does restrict the distribution to company employees only.
You can use the iOS 8 SDK and Xcode 6 to distribute your app to 25 beta tester, wihtout going thru review. And later Apple will allow you to beta test, with app review, for a 100 users.
But for now AdHoC will be your best option, and use something like HockeyApp or TestFlight for the distribution. But using AdHoc does require you to have the device UDID before hand as they need to added to the AdHoc Profile.
Best way to distribute iOS app for testing or demo is to use Testflight. It is much easier then distributing IPA file and letting anyone install it on their iOS device.
I would suggest using TestFlight as it is simple and reliable. The only thing is, you need to register with the device ID. You can send the testFlight build to your selected clients with this.
www.testflightapp.com
Make an enterprise adhoc of your application. Apple allows you to create adhoc of your applciation with 100 users allowed at max.
And then you can demo your application to 100 people.
If you "don't want to trouble the investors with finding their device ids", then test flight is your best options. Your investors just need to install test flight make there account(with really easy steps) on test flight. And accept your invite. After they are are in your team you can easily get there device id by clicking info button next to there name on screen, under people tab of website.
Check this image for detail:
I'm developping an App in my company. We want to distribute this App to our customers but without using the AppStore from Apple, is it possible?
I heard about MDM (mobile device manager) but I'm not really sure if it will cover this need?
I heard also about Enterprise developer license for in house deployment but if I'm understanding correctly it means the App can be deployed only inside my company and not to our customers, is it correct?
Thanks for your clarifications.
Seb
If you are trying to get apps to customers without the App Store, you have options, but none of them are awesome.
There are many choices for over the air distribution of the binary, that really isn't the complicated part. You've got MDM solutions, HockeyKit, TestFlight, Manual server manipulation - all are fairly easy and well documented.
Where things get nasty is in the signing. If you definitely do not want to participate in the App Store environment (no app store, no Volume Purchase Program), you only have two real options:
Ad Hoc - Limited to 100 Devices. Devices must be explicitly added to a provision.
Enterprise - No device limit, devices do not need to explicitly added to provisions. In effect, these builds will run on any device; the caveat, you are not legally allowed to distribute these builds to anyone outside your company.
If you intend on developing an application for some other company and their employees, then your only viable option is to sign the final build with a signing certificate attached to said company's development account. The enterprise signing route is a really great approach, if you can get the company to sign all the paperwork to get their own developer account, owned by them.
For stock iOS devices, you really have only 4 choices:
1) Ad Hoc distribution to up to 100 total max devices per iOS Developer enrollment (including wireless Ad Hoc via manifest file & SSL.)
2) Enterprise distribution for distribution to employees of corporations with a D&B rating.
3) Apple's iTunes App store if your app is approved by Apple. (This includes the B2B program and account/password protected apps.) (This now also includes up to 1000 people using Apple's new Testflight service.)
4) Unlimited distribution to other people who have their own individual, company or enterprise iOS/Apple Developer enrollments. The distribution can be either as an Xcode project with source code or a pre-compiled library, or as an ipa or archive file that the customer can (re)codesign with their own Developer certificates. For applications priced at well over $99 per customer, the cost of this annual developer program enrollment might only be a slight additional cost to the customer (and given appropriate legal authorizations, might even be handled as an annual paid service.)
4 b.) ADDED UPDATE: As of Apple's release of Xcode 7 (in late 2015), anyone with just a free Apple ID can use Xcode 7 on their Mac to install apps from build-able Xcode projects directly to their own tethered iOS devices this way, with no need to pay $99 to Apple to enroll. See this answer.
This essentially allows unlimited distribution to anyone with physical access to a current Mac and who knows how to run Xcode.
Options (1), (2) and (4) do not require going through App store approval. There are no other options for distributing apps to stock OS iOS devices.
You could take a look at https://testflightapp.com/.
We use that a lot for customers that only need a app for testing doing the development phase and for apps that are used for conventions (limited time, limited number of units).
Testflight is very easy to use for both developers and end-users, but it is not very well suited for apps that are going to be used on a large numbers of devices, since all devices that are installed to needs to be in your provisioning profile which has a limited number of slots.
EDIT
The testfligt approch is no longer valid. You can now use the TestFlight integrated into itunesconnect. Alternatively you could integrate crashlytics.com, at use their distribution system. It works pretty weill
I'm sorry if this question has been asked. I have looked but can not find the question/answer.
I work for a web agency and am now developing IOS Apps for deployment on iPads.
We have the Developer licence from Apple however, reading the blurb it suggests that the Apps need to go through the App Store.
Due to the nature of the Apps (Medical) they can not be on the App Store.
Is this Developer licence using the "Ad Hoc" option enough to deploy the App to clients (not in our company) using a link, or do I need to use the Enterprise Licence?
The Enterprise Licence does say:
You plan to only distribute your iOS apps within your company or organization
The Enterprise Program is intended for developers who wish to develop
and distribute their iOS apps within their company or organisation.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm sorry this is a bit of a random/bitty question.
Thanks in advance.
The ad-hoc distribution is limited to 99 devices and the enterprise limitation is 2k or 5k, not sure. If you want to really distribute your app, but limit its usage, then you have to build an authorization mechanism into your app (like http://www.doccheck.com for doctors). You may use an existing service like this or you can implement your own.
Enterprise distribution, btw, requires the registration of the device in your company. I would not do that as a customer in that case, maybe that is an issue in your case, too.
I have a question about the licenses of iOS and my application.
I am developing a application to run on a lot of iPad's for a consulters company. This company will download the (IPA) file from our web interface, and sync the devices on iTunes. Is this possible with the simple iOS Developer Program licence? I think that this is the famous ad-hoc, and not the in-house distribution from Enterprise Program. I am really confused about this licence and the Enterprise Program.
Thanks.
Since iOS 4 was released, you don't have to manually download the IPA and sync through iTunes, you can install by tapping on a link on a web page. You just need to create a plist file and point the link to it with a special pseudo-protocol. The details are in the developer library.
The individual / company developer account can handle that with ad hoc builds, but it sounds like the enterprise program is a better match for your needs. Ad hoc builds expire after a few months, it's limited to a hundred users and getting the UDIDs from the client can be a real pain. I've gone down that path before, and it's not unusual to receive UDIDs as screenshots of iTunes embedded in a Word document or incomplete/wrong, even after you give them step-by-step instructions on how to do it properly.
The enterprise program has its own drawbacks. It can take a while to get set up, and the company needs a DUNS number. However once it's set up, you'll find it easier to work with.
The standard developer program will let you distribute to 100 devices per year. That's the ad-hoc mechanism, and it isn't intended for what you're doing, although it certainly will work assuming you have fewer than 100 users.
The Enterprise program is designed for what you're doing, but costs more and has different details.
With the individual and company plans you have a limitation of 100 devices that you authorize with ad hoc distribution. Besides you have App Store access. If the number of devices is > 100 then applying to this program is not useful and then you must revert to the enterprise program.
The enterprise program gives you unlimited number of devices that can be authorized but no access to the App Store. In such case the consulter company must be enrolled to this program and can distribute the apps only to its employers or members. Finally this program provides other than ad-hoc distribution even in-house distribution, that is a form of automatic app distribution (like a simplified app store but for the company only). Finally note that in order to apply to this program the company must own a DUNS number.
Clearly if you want to have both options, that is in-house distribution and App Store access the company can enroll to the two programs.