So I've spent a lot of time making an iPhone game and have recently realized that I don't have to limit myself to just Apple - I know there are app stores for Palm and Android, but does anybody know of a good "app store" for the plain old PC? I would like to have one where individual developers can publish an app and not have to worry about all the billing and piracy issues!
Valve has Steam, although that's a bit of a game store. It comes with DRM so it might be what you want. http://store.steampowered.com/
From what I can see, their website has an email to coontact them about distribution and that's it. steamworks#valvesoftware.com
Stardock has Impulse, which is more of a general app store although it does have games as well. No DRM baked in, and it has a very liberal return policy. http://www.impulsedriven.com/
Impulse has a page with more info and a contact form - https://developer.impulsedriven.com/#publishing
The page states the base rate is 70% which is likely more than Steam gives you.
Related
Many companies rely on white labeled apps to provide their services in a more personal way to their customers.
With a few adjustments we can set a logo and a splash screen and even pre-configure our app to our customer needs which has a great impact in their end user experience. Without this my users would need to use the app skipping a lot of configuration steps that in a generic app wouldn't be possible to skip.
According to apple: "Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected"
Now what can we do to to work around this?
Today I saw 4 apps being rejected and others are waiting for revision and I can anticipate that they will have the same ending.
Here's the revision result:
"4. 3 Design: Spam"
Guideline 4.3 - Design
We noticed that your app provides the same feature set as many of the
other apps you've submitted to the App Store; it simply varies in
content or language, which is considered a form of spam.
The next submission of this app may require a longer review time.
Next Steps
When creating multiple apps where content is the only varying element,
you should offer a single app to deliver differing content to
customers. Alternatively, you may consider creating a web app, which
looks and behaves similar to a native app when the customer adds it to
their Home screen. Refer to the Configuring Web Applications section
of the Safari Web Content Guide for more information.
Review the Design section of the App Store Review Guidelines.
Ensure your app is compliant with all sections of the App Store Review Guidelines and the Terms & Conditions of the Apple Developer
Program.
Once your app is fully compliant, resubmit your app for review.
Submitting apps designed to mislead or harm customers or evade the
review process may result in the termination of your Apple Developer
Program account. Review the Terms & Conditions of the Apple Developer
Program to learn more about our policies regarding termination.
If you believe your app is compliant with the App Store Review
Guidelines, you may submit an appeal. Alternatively, you may provide
additional details about your app by replying directly to this
message.
For app design information, check out the following videos: "Best
Practices for Great iOS UI Design" and "Designing Intuitive User
Experiences," available on the Apple Developer website.
You may also want to review the iOS Human Interface Guidelines for
more information on how to create a great user experience in your app.
Of course we can develop web apps, but apple can't forget that many features are only available in native or hybrid apps.
What should we do?
References:
https://blog.summitsync.com/did-apple-just-crush-white-label-apps-4aee14d00b78
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/
The current answer is out of date. Apple revised their guidelines in which the customer must have their own Apple account now, paying the $99 a year. You can then submit a white labeled app under that account. We have been doing that the past three months with no problem. They wouldnt allow this approach before but now they do.
The Apple developer account can not be an individual account, but a company, educational or government type.
If you have a few apps under the same company account you can submit the apps if they can be proven to belong to the current company. We have three apps submitted under the same company account because the apps shared similar names to the company however I wouldn't do this for different companies.
We where having the same issue. We have talked to Apple, which where very kind and understanding.
Our app is one used mainly bij employees of a company and there for Apple suggested to use B2B app distribution via Volume Purchase Program.
If your app is just white labeled app that business can use for their customers then you are out of luck. Apple will not allow any white label apps in the app store any more.
Your option is to make one app which can switch between the different customers.
If you app is like web store this can be difficult, but as per Apple's example of the fan app of a football club switch per club should be in one app.
4.3 is a complete mess. With its active enforcement, Apple has indeed opened a Pandora's box. The biggest problem is that this policy is applied randomly.
My experience suggests that there are very few App Store reviewers who are paying attention to it during the review process. However, if you stumble upon such a reviewer, they will put some flag on your file, and all other reviewers will start to evaluate your apps for spam going forward. It seems like nothing is wrong with this approach, but it can lead to a distorted market.
In our case, we are waiting for years now to see Apple apply the same rules to our competition as it did to us. And the most ironic part is that throughout these years we've been ringing all the possible bells. Emails to Apple representatives, release notes, responses in resolution centre – nothing works.
For more details about our story check my Medium post. I have also written a second part which contains the timeline of my discussions with Apple representatives in which I highlighted competitors who violate 4.3, and Apple did nothing :(
So, the first problem with 4.3 is that it distorts the competition given how selective Apple is at implementing it.
The second problem is that the policy itself is too vague. Take our company, Theory Test Revolution, as an example. We build apps which help people pass their UK Driving Test.
Although we focus on theory tests, the reality is that our apps could be used as a platform to prepare for any multiple-choice test. Imagine if we wanted to release a couple of other MCQs apps. For example, to prepare for PADI diving exam and also to prepare for some pilot's licence exam.
How would 4.3 apply in this case? Would Apple demand that we bundle all of them in one app? How would we call it? :) "Any test you can imagine"? :)
There must be some limits. There are cases when marketing needs justify releasing separate apps even if their foundation is the same, as doing otherwise would simply confuse the users. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't care about fair competition enough. I guess their goal is to reduce the number of apps using this policy, with little regard to how fair this process is.
We are waiting for almost three years now to see our competitors being treated in the same way. And who knows – how much longer do we need to wait?
Had a call with Apple on July 13, 2020, 5 PM (GMT)
I had a conversation with the app review team regarding this matter today and I have concluded the following.
You can have the same codebase, same color, and same design for multiple apps but, a big BUT, is that you need to have some unique functionality in the app which provides a different experience to users.
They clearly said it's a difficult thing to do for developers and should take a longer time.
Only a way to know if some unique feature will work out is to send it for a review. It doesn't matter how long you have spent on developing that new feature. They also said they cannot help and is not permitted to insight anything beforehand.
They cleared that this is not a technical or logical issue to be resolved. For example, they are not going to check if the app icon or color is going to match with other app and decide it a spam or not spam but they care how users will be experiencing this app with the "WOW" factor or the app usefulness.
In short, the app must give another perspective to the user and the app should insist the user to use it because it has something new to give.
According to section 4.2.6 of: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#design
Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app’s content. These services should not submit apps on behalf of their clients and should offer tools that let their clients create customized, innovative apps that provide unique customer experiences. Another acceptable option for template providers is to create a single binary to host all client content in an aggregated or “picker” model, for example as a restaurant finder app with separate customized entries or pages for each client restaurant, or as an event app with separate entries for each client event.
So, rejoice! your apps can in fact be white labeled! they just must be:
submitted directly by the provider of the app’s content
There is nothing you can do to make Apple approve a copy of your app with only images and labels changed, it was their politics since iOS 3.
The only sure way you can do it is by creating a new developer account for the company you are selling the personalized version.
And B2B is also a viable option that also saves your client the 99$ yearly Apple bill.
This is the third time we've submitted our messaging app to the Apple App Store, and this time we got a very upsetting response:
The rating you’ve selected, 4+, is inconsistent with the content of your app. Since your application includes content and features involving user-generated information and picture sharing, it should be rated appropriately for this subject.
Not only is this cryptic, but it is completely inconsistent with what's already out there in the store. All of the top 5 messaging apps have ratings at 4+, and every single one of them have user-generated content. On top of that, I used the "rating form" that allows you to select items to determine what rating system you're in. It selected 4+.
My question is this: what do you do to combat inconsistent requests from the app store? I submitted an appeal, but I'm unhappy that I actually have to do this in the first place.
My question is this: what do you guys do to combat ridiculous inconsistent requests from the app store? I submitted an appeal, but I'm furious that I actually have to do this in the first place.
Welcome to the world of iOS developers. This is the state of the art. And believe it or not, it was worse in the past.
I had a few apps rejected which did exactly the same as other apps. Fighting against it is useless most of the time, im my opinion. Apple is Apple. And will ever be.
Making insanely much money shows them, they are on the right track.
Forget the inconsistent portion, that will buy you nothing. Instead concentrate on why the app was rejected: "includes content and features involving user-generated information and picture sharing". This is a valid concern on Apple's part: Apple has decided to rate content by age and as such they have a responsibility to attempt as best as possible to provide such protections.
Note as an example that any app that allows a user to browse to an address of their choosing must have a high age rating.
An app such as your is open to mis-abuse in many ways, think about it.
The solution is either raise the age or provide some mechanism to prevent abuse.
I understand that this might be an inappropriate question, but I really wanna make sure before I start being "involved" in the App Store.
So, lets say I have developed an application for iPhone with XCode adn want to deploy to the App Store. Also, lets say I want to charge the users for the app. In Google Play, google does not allow you to "earn money" through google play if you live in certain countries (Greece is one of them). Is this the same for the App Store either?
I know I must create a Developer's Account in the app store and that it costs 99$ anually. But in order to charge for the application, do I have to live in (lets say) Russia or USA, or can I do it even if I live in Greece?
Thank you for your patience and your time :)
Is this the same for the App Store either?
No, you can earn money from the first app you sell (even if you sell one single copy).
do I have to live in (lets say) Russia or USA, or can I do it even if I live in Greece?
Doesn't matter where you live. You have the ability to specify in which territories you prefer to provide your app, and the sales reports are sent to you separated by territory.
I just tried to create an Apple ID and selected Greece as country and everything went ok.
I've read in some forums problems a while ago (2010) regarding payment with credit card. The problems were solved by sending a wire transfer to Apple and a PDF with the application (however I think this is not necessary at the moment).
You can try to create a developer account (it's free) and if everything goes well you can then buy the license that you need.
I am working on a mobile iOS app that is customized to each client, with their own app icon, startup screen, and a few other changes. Each is then submitted to the app store as an individual app.
This is working just fine so far, but what will happen if there's 1000 clients instead of around a dozen? Does Apple have any rules on quantity, submission rate or uniqueness? Any reviewer would clearly see that the apps are basically the same outside of the branding.
Don't do it. You will get kicked out of the appstore.
Read 2.20 of Apple iOS Guidelines which says that developers that spam appstore with similar apps will be kicked out completely!
Notably developers like AppGratis got kicked for this and many others reasons.
Sorry can't disclose, if you have a developers account though you can check the requirements
from https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html
I know this is an old thread but somehow it popped up and the answer selected is not entirely correct. The requester needs the custom B2B program here:
https://developer.apple.com/programs/volume/b2b/
That is specifically made for the purpose she/he asked about: to distribute customized apps to a business without cluttering the app store. There is no cost but your customers will need to join the Apple Volume Purchase Program for Business though that doesn't cost them anything.
The reason I say the accepted answer is partially correct is because obviously one should not spam up the app store with similar apps intended for one business, which is entirely correct. But that does not answer the underlying why they wanted to do this and how they could achieve the result they need which is to use the B2B program.
I'm starting making an app for a website that I own. I know some about programming with xcode but there's a lot of stuff that I don't know yet. Mostly I have almost everything figured out for the app but I need to add to the app a way to sign in and sign up to the website and also a way to pay with credit card. I don't know how to start with all that.
I have tried to look some videos but I didn't see anything similar to what I want to do. I would really appreciate if you could explain me it, or send me some kind of help.
While I can't help you with sign-up/in features, I do know that ZooZ seems to be the cheapest and easiest way to accept credit card payments on mobile apps.
Both iOS and Android compatible, ZooZ's 3 lines of code monetizes your app in minutes. Users have their choice of checking out with credit cards or PayPal.
The biggest advantages of ZooZ are that your user always stays within your app and won't have to re-enter payment details in the future, resulting in faster processing and higher conversion rates.
Of course you can always build your own credit card processing platform, but considering the challenges of security, merchant accounts, and PCI compliance, it's probably not worth the headache.
Full disclosure: I have the privilege of working at ZooZ :)
Good luck with your app!