I need to be able to deploy my application to other businesses, but not on the app store. The business app is for restaurant owners, and is different to the app that will be available on the app store for users.
I saw that Apple have an 'Enterprise' program, that allow users to deploy apps to internally within there company. For example to co workers. But I need to be able to deploy the app externally to businesses. Has any come across and solved this issue before?
You should consider the Apple B2B distribution program: https://developer.apple.com/programs/volume/b2b/
I haven't personally used it, but it appears to be a solution that fills the gap between Enterprise and App Store.
One alternative would be to use the iOS Enterprise Program instead of the B2B distribution program.
But as you'd be developing apps for another company, I think the correct thing to do would be to ask your client (the other company) to license the iOS Enterprise Program and give you access to it. That's how the company I work at handles this cases.
If anyone else is interested in publishing an app for businesses that shouldn’t be on the public App Store, there is the iOS developer enterprise program which allows companies to distribute apps internally without publication on the App Store.
The program needs to be open by the companies as the distribution is only for their employees.
The B2B option is to distribute custom apps from businesses to businesses and only available in the following countries :
Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States.
If you are not from one of these countries, the Enterprise program is the best option.
You will need your customers to enroll in the Enterprise program, and then you will be able to join their development team and develop the app on their behalf. (Source: Apple Customer Support).
Related
I was aware of the Enterprise iOS program where you effectively run a private app-store, but I only just heard about Volume Purchase Program and custom B2B apps.
For a software company seeking to create bespoke applications for customers' companies, what are the differences between using these two approaches?
Note: I'm not talking about developing apps for my own company in-house, or about offering volume purchasing options for apps I offer in the public app-store. Only about developing private apps for other companies.
The VPP doesn't have anything to do with developing applications, only buying them (from the App Store) and distributing those purchased apps within a company enrolled in VPP.
If you are talking about doing applications for others for use in an Enterprise setting, then you really don't need to join either of them. You just need to be a registered developer (single developer account) and then the organization that you would be developing applications for would need to be enrolled in an Enterprise account. You would get added as a team member on that team and be able to do the certificates and provisioning necessary to develop and deploy applications you write.
I am a single developer as well as a member of several other teams for companies I write applications for.
This same model also works for developing applications for App Store accounts.
EDIT:
Here is some additional information:
https://developer.apple.com/programs/volume/b2b/
(check out option 3)
http://mobiledan.net/2012/03/02/5-options-for-distributing-ios-apps-to-a-limited-audience-legally/
The B2B process is similar to the App Store process except that the App Store is private (the Apple Business Store) and as a developer, you get to choose what VPP customers can purchase the app. The approval process is the same as the iTunes App Store.
I have made an app for doctors only for education purpose only. because of copyright issues I don't want the app to be on the app store. So I am planning to host the app on the my website with authentication. I have distributed app this way to the clients before and I know the difference between apple enterprise program vs developer account. I came across the issue that you can not deploy app to your end user via this method because it is violating app store terms and condition. After reading many forums I came to know that b2b program can be the solution. I know that b2b app store you still have to go with app store standard procedure So my questions are,
1) If your app is free, will it still violate app store terms and condition.?
2) What is the flow for b2b program once you submit your app to apple.?
3) Is b2b also violating the terms and condition for my scenario.?
Note - I know already how to get enterprise account or apply for b2b program. I have an organization to deal with this. I also know that the enterprise program only allows you to distribute the application file among employees with registered devices in your company, not to anybody else. :)
Thanks.
1) Free apps are still held to the same approval standards of paid apps.
The best way is an iOS enterprise account. Once you have an enterprise account, you can host signed Apps on your own website and your clients can download them directly to devices using OTA distribution. There is no Apple review for distributing apps this way.
Note that enterprise accounts are meant for distributing apps in an organization and not publicly. I think as long as you limit distribution to a specific group (not publicly) then you will not violate license agreements. Read the actual agreement to make sure it fits your needs.
Check out this question for details of how to setup OTA distribution:
IOS Enterprise Distribution Through OTA
Hi I developed one business app for my customers(SALES PERSONS) it integrate with ERP ,
this app distributed to many Sales Person iPad's by Developer provisioning profile.
My bad time Developer provisioning profile have one year validity only..
How can I distribute my app to my sales persons iPads with life time provisioning profile.
*This app is not uploaded App store because business purpose only.
Is there any other way to business app distribution methods?
Please share your ideas ..
I hope it will help me...
Thanks...
You or your organisation resprectively need an enterprise account. It is a bit more expensive, has higher application criteria and a stronger contract but enables you to do exactly that.
See Apple's docs for details.
https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/
If you use the ad hoc provisioning profile distribution, as you did, you meet at least two problems:
A limited time your users can use the app (the ad hoc provisioning profile has a limited duration)
A limited number of users can run the distributed app (remember that you can use at maximum 100 devices per year for testing, and from the Apple's point of view your users are just testers)
In general, to achieve what you want with iOS, you have a couple of options, but probably no one of them perfectly fit your needs:
Registers with the iOS Developer Enterprise Program.
In this case you can distribute your app without submitting it to the App Store,
but this method works only if your users are employees of your company
Enrolls in the Volume Purchase Program for Business
(VPP Business Guide).
In this case you can submit your app, in a restricted number of
Countries (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Italy,
Germany, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan), to a limited
number of users, through a sort of parallel App Store.
This procedure is intended for companies that fit the following requirement:
big companies (that have a DUNS number) that hire a company that develops a Business
app for them (aka marks the app as Business and related to that particular company during the app creation in the iTunes App Store). The app will not be visible in the traditional App Store.
Maybe this second case can be your case, in case you are realizing the app for a DUNS company. Please consider that in this case the company itself (and not you) establishes who can install the app by sending it to the selected target users in different ways (promo codes, links to the app store,...).
I don't see other options at the moment.
Here is a link provided by apple themselves on how to distribute in-house business apps.
http://www.apple.com/business/accelerator/deploy/app-distribution.html
I'm not going to copy everything over cause there is quite a lot, but it basically says you can distribute your apps over a wireless network using a private server and an Enterprise Distribution provisioning profile.
Another link that is from that site is http://help.apple.com/iosdeployment-apps/mac/1.1/#app43ad8905 which gives a walkthrough on how to set this all up.
If you have any questions just ask. I have given a basic summary but I can go into more detail if you don't understand.
I am creating an App for a music ensemble. This ensemble wants to give away the visitors who attend the concert this app. On the other day this app could be in the appStore as an App with a certain price.
Should this be done with changing its price on a daily basis? Or is there a more practicle way for it?
Which kind of account I should advice the ensemble to take?
Or should I bring it to the app store as an Ad Hoc App? Or Custom B2B App Distribution?
Or should they do it via in-House distribution?
a developer or Enterprise programm?
Definitely not the enterprise program. The enterprise license allows you to build and deploy iOS apps on devices owned by the enterprise or by the employees of the enterprise. Distributing apps to general customers would be a license violation.
There are two ways to solve your problem using a standard license:
1) Publish a paid app on the app store. If the number of customers who attend the concert is less, give away app store promo codes to them, sell the app to the rest of the customers.
2) Publish a free app on the app store. Have some kind of login mechanism. Give away user ids and passwords to customers who attend the concert. Have an in-app purchase for all others, to get full functionality.
We have created a messaging app and regularly post updates to the appstore. This way, appstore contains always the latest & greatest, with a small risk of bugs.
We want to build a stable version for our business customers (who do in-house messaging), which updates very seldom or never. Our customers want to control the rate of updates themselves.
Telling their employees not to upgrade does not work, since new installs always get the latest version from the appstore.
Question:
Can I use the enterprise distribution certificate of my own company and deliver the app binaries to my customers (e.g. a different binary per customer)?
Or should I create a different version in the appstore for each customer?
Or should I force my customers to request their own enterprise distribution certificate, which is a hassle I would like to avoid?
I guess that the answer to my first question is NO, as indicated in Can the iOS enterprise app development program be used to distribute apps to other companies but not via the app store?
2 is annoying, since everybody in the world can see & install the app
3 is annoying, since it requires time of my customer plus a legal contract such that I can request a certificate for my customer, use their private key, ...
By your contract you are not allowed to do that.
But Everybody does it. And i had phone contact with a apple employe which told me that they won't go behind that case.
And imaging: should apple check all installations of all enterprise deployment programs? Impossible,... even for Apple.
I would just try to get not more installations than 1000.
The iOS developer program allows you to distribute Custom B2B Apps directly to your customers if they have Volume Purchase Program account.
Custom B2B Apps
You can also offer custom B2B apps directly to your business customers who have a Volume Purchase Program account. A custom B2B app provides a unique, tailored solution to address a specific business need or requirement.
If you have customers who are not located in the US, I recommend the third option: making our customers have their own iOS Enterprise Developer account.