Deploying Without App Store

[peter_lboro]

Has anyone deployed iOS apps to iPads without going via the App Store? I know that I can nominate up to 100 iPads as DEVELOPMENT systems and deploy to them directly, but you are limited to 100 iPads per year. What I want to do is to deploy apps in limited numbers as bespoke solutions to my customers. These are not general apps and are not suitable for App Store distribution. However, they are not "Development" iPads either, they are customer iPads I want to install my apps on.

Any suggestions as to how I go about this please?

[observ3]

I'm not sure that Apple permits exactly this type of distribution...
The enterprise program (http://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/) might be sort of what you want... but otherwise I don't think you can do anything like what you describe without jailbreaking.

[peter_lboro]

Hmm, if you look at the iOS Developer Program page:

http://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/distribute.html

it describes "Ad Hoc Distribution" as follows:

"Share your application with up to 100 other iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch users with Ad Hoc distribution. Share your application through email, or by posting it to a website or server."

There's no mention here of 100 devices per year. I have no problem being limited to 100 distributions per year per app, but 100 devices per year is very limiting. My work is for small companies of a couple of dozen or so employees and I'm looking to write bespoke apps for these customers. So in any given year I might deploy a number of different bespoke apps to perhaps a dozen or so users per customer.

I've just found a web site (http://www.innerfence.com/howto/install ... stribution) which lists the steps needed for Ad Hoc Distribution. I'll give this a try and see what happens!

Best regards

Peter

[jeanvouillon]

Perhaps I'm wrong, but you could do it (if you have the devices IUIDs) by using:
http://www.diawi.com/

[peter_lboro]

Thanks for the lead, it looks interesting. Diawi is effectively a 3rd party uploading service. They mention adverts and professional uses but don't give details of what adverts, when and where or their charges. So I'll park this for now until I've exhausted other approaches!

Best regards

Peter

[reelstuff]

very interesting thread, I have seen a lot of interest in third party distribution systems, there are not a lot them out there and the ones that are, sadly on not user friendly.

Recent polls suggest that up to 44 percent of the iphone market and 37 percent of the ipad market are jail broken, indeed, when visiting my doctors office he had his iphone which was jail broken, now this is a medical doctor, who could not get an app that would not interupt him while he was busy, apparently there is a jail broken app for that, and when he gets a call while he is busy, (from certain phone numbers) it just goes to voice mail, and if it is from an emergency phone number, (in the app you can designate to whom you will receive a call and whom you will not)

Interesting stuff, however there is really not a great method yet of distribution outside the app store, unless you use Xcode and a special setup in your plist file, too much brain energy for me to figure it all out, but I think apple is missing the ball game here with this seriously strange drm approach to selling and maintaining apps.

[JosepM]

Hi,

Maybe I wrong but you can distribute as in-House without submit to the AppStore.

In-house Distribution
iPhone apps provisioned using the enterprise distribution method are not submitted to the App Store. In-house apps can be hosted on a website, file sharing system, or simply emailed directly to users. Installation for the user is as simple as syncing with iTunes.

I have some projects on the table that would be distributed on this way, but reading the posts I'm a little confused now.

Salut,
Josep

[peter_lboro]

Hi

I've found that I can register one or more iPads/iPhone using the Xcode organiser facility and then copy the necessary files to an iPad/iPhone either using iTunes or using ecamm.com's excellent PhoneView program ($20). The advantage of PhoneView is that you don't need to synch the iPad with iTunes, which means you can install on a 'guest' iPad within destroying and synching its contents with your personal iTunes! I've also emailed the necessary files to a colleague and they've walked through the process of installing the app on their iPad using iTunes on their normal synching computer. So the actual registration and installation process isn't too bad (if a little long-winded in places).

My concern is that if you don't have an Enterprise licence from Apple, there seems to be a 100 devices annual limit which is NOT explained. Is this the total number of annual installs of ALL your apps on ALL devices (i.e. max 100 installs per year), or the total number of annual installs of per SINGLE app (i.e. 100 x N installs per year)? If the former, then it's too restrictive, if the latter, then I can live with 100 copies per app per year. I don't have a definitive answer to this!

The problems with getting an Enterprise licence from Apple are that a) it costs 3 times as much ($299 per year instead of $99 per year), and b) much more significantly, you need to have some special form of business registration. Also, I don't want to distribute large numbers to 1 or 2 big customers, but small numbers to a larger number of small customers!

Best regards

Peter

[reelstuff]

I can answer the question of how many installs as of Jan of this year, max 100 installs per year so if you test out an app, on a device, 99,

Each time you provision a device then the total goes down, as far as an enterprise subscription, you have to meet the employee requirements or work for a company with the required amount of employees, I have contacted apple about this (injustice) for small business users, (like mom and pop pizza) or any other smaller business that might need a distribution method that is not well serviced by apples current approach to distribution through the app store, (regional, local business) do not need national or international distribution, I would encourage anyone to communicate this missing service that apple could provide with a small amount of effort on their parts.

http://developer.apple.com/contact/
http://www.apple.com/feedback

I have had numerous requests for small business apps which I have had to decline simply because Mom and POPs Pizza app is not going to get into a national distribution nor do they need it, I encourage them to contact apple and request that they consider providing for a distribution method other than large corporate and national distribution. So far no news, but you never know as we are all aware around here things at apple are subject to change without notice.

[JosepM]

Hi,

Good, 99 installs per year, but the provision for each device have a expiration date, isn't? So the only way is AppStore...

I will send a feeback to Apple...

Also we can create a standard text to send Apple claiming for a solution for this.

Thoughts?

Salut,
Josep

[reelstuff]

Good idea, my initial thoughts are that a mechanism for regional distribution would be a favorable method of implementation.

For example, Car dealers in the Atlanta ga area, could be placed in a region, along with the same mom and pop pizza locations that might also wish to distribute apps in that region, seems to me that would be a win win solution, right now the only market segmentation Apple has is North America, in my communications with them I cited this as (short cited) perhaps not the best language to use, but sometimes a little fire and brimstone goes a long way.

[CALL-151]

There's an app in the Mac App store called "BetaBuilder for iOS Apps" that claims to automate the steps needed for ad-hoc distros. Not clear to me if this will work with LC standalones, as it seems to require a .ipa. Has anyone had any luck with this?

[paul_gr]

I was wondering if we can adapt the adhoc "over the air" method mentioned in this article...

http://iphonedevelopertips.com/xcode/di ... r-ota.html

In the comments it mentions that you don't have to be in the Enterprise program.
Hoping to hear from someone that knows a lot more about this than I do...

cheers
Paul

[reelstuff]

$ Android is looking better all the time.

[witeowl]

Considering just how advanced Apple is at this point you just have to ask, (is there not an easier way to get this done)

I suppose the logical answer is yes and that means that this is intentional.

Unless I'm misunderstanding the situation, then of course it's intentional, and I don't think DRM has anything to do with it. Apple gets a cut of apps sold through the app store; they don't get a cut of apps distributed outside the app store. Apple, like any other business, cares about cash.