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My Company is building an app which we want the external customers to try out before submitting to the app store. Since in-house builds can only be distributed to employees of the company, what's the best way to get the app to beta customers without going through the app store? If the customer signs up for a developer or enterprise account and gives us their certificate, is it ok to sign the app on their behalf and give it to them?

Thanks!

Update: Number of devices is more than 100.

mosdev
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  • That's not true. I'm beta-ing an app for a friend of mine, and he just sent me the "AdHoc" profile along with the app. – Paul Tomblin Apr 16 '12 at 22:21
  • The AdHoc profile must have the UDID of your device for you to be able to run. Moreover, adhoc is limited to 100 devices. – mosdev Apr 17 '12 at 02:26

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If you have less than 100 devices you want to run the app on, you can do adhoc builds and distribute them via your own web server or TestFlight. You will need the UDID of every device that it will be installed on, though. I usually suggest people run Ad Hoc Helper for that. See iPhone ad hoc build using Xcode 4 and http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ad-hoc-helper/id285691333?mt=8

Community
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EricS
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  • Isn't distributing adhoc builds to external customers violation of agreement? – mosdev Apr 17 '12 at 02:28
  • No. From https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/distribute.html : "Ad Hoc Distribution With Ad Hoc distribution you can share your application with up to 100 other iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch users. Through email or by posting it to a website or server, users can download and install your app." – EricS Apr 17 '12 at 02:34
  • @mosdev you are mixing that up with the use of the enterprise distribution certificate - that one prohibits distribution towards third parties (including beta builds sent to people outside of your company). – Till Apr 17 '12 at 02:37
  • With developer account - you can do max 100 'allowed' devices using UDIDs. And can distribute to anyone. With enterprise account - you can distribute to >100 employees. How do I distribute to multiple customers without the 100 limit? Do I ask them to create developer/enterprise account and send the provisioning profile for me to sign the app and send it to them? What else do I need - their distribution certificate? – mosdev Apr 17 '12 at 02:50
  • If Apple allowed you to distribute an app to an unlimited number of people who weren't in your company, wouldn't that be subverting the App Store? – Paul Tomblin Apr 17 '12 at 09:11
  • You cannot distribute to more than 100 devices a year using ad-hoc builds. It's an unfortunate limit for many, especially for developers with multiple applications since you can't decommission older devices until your membership expires. Apple does have a new program for direct business-to-business distribution, but the minimum app price is $9.99. See http://www.apple.com/business/vpp/ – EricS Apr 17 '12 at 13:21
  • I still didn't get answer to my question. Is it ok if I write an app and sign on behalf of customer(s) without ever submitting to the app store. So the customers will be able to distribute it to their employees (potentially more than 100). – mosdev Jun 19 '12 at 21:39
  • If they distribute to employees only and get an Enterprise account through Apple, yes. Otherwise, no. – EricS Jun 20 '12 at 18:52
  • Thanks Eric. Have you seen/heard of this kind of distribution? If yes, any names? I think/hope that they will distribute it to their employees only, but then that's their side of the agreement. My concern is signing on behalf of customer(s). – mosdev Jun 20 '12 at 21:12
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My answer requires devices to be jailbroken.

Since you say you need more than 100 devices, you could fake sign the app. This will allow you to install on as many devices as you need.

P.S. I recommend option #2 on the fake signing link I gave you.

Ali Hamze
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