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We have an industrial app that currently runs on a very expensive ruggedized PDA. Since most of the engineers we sell to have iPhones we are considering moving to the much nicer newer platform.

A couple of questions: Is it possible to sell iPhone apps with out the app store? Apple taking a 40% cut of a 99c iFart app is one thing but this is a $3000 engineering calculation app. We have also heard of the hassles some people have had getting apps approved.

Can we sell an iPod touch (I understand selling an iPhone without a contract is trickier) with pre-packaged software.

ps. Sorry for the anonymous posting, the company is a little nervous about our relationship with the PDA maker.

pjs
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16 Answers16

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There are basically three different official iPhone application distribution methods that I am aware of:

- App store

With this method anyone with an iPhone can have access to the application. You can distribute an unlimited number of applications like this. Apple gets a 30% cut. Of course Apple must approve your applicaion.

- Ad hoc

You can distribute applications using ad hoc without going through the app store, but you are limited to a maximum of 100 devices. With this method you can distribute you application from a web site, email, etc.

- Enterprise

The method is for internal distribution in companies with more than 500 employees. Apple does not provide any more public detail that I could find on this method.

It doesn't sound like any of these methods meet your criteria unless you have fewer than 100 customers and don't plan to exceed that number. It sounds like from the question your customers are not internal to your company.

I would advise contacting Apple. They might be able to work out some kind of custom distribution deal.

TWA
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  • Changing the name or the version of the app everytime they exceed n*100 costumers would be considered cheating? :D – Andrea Ambu Jun 13 '09 at 10:25
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    Changing the name doesn't work. The limit is on the number of devices. – progrmr May 13 '10 at 17:37
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    They would have to create multiple developer accounts. One developer account (99$/year) gives you 100 devices for ad hoc distribution. Also, Ad-Hoc distributed apps expire. – Jakob Egger Mar 03 '11 at 11:34
  • isn't https://developer.apple.com/support/appstore/volume-purchase-program/ also an option?? – RohitWagh Mar 19 '14 at 06:18
22

Enterprise developer program allows in house distribution, avoiding the appstore. It's $299 vs $99 and doesn't include AppStore distribution.

For companies with 500 or more employees who are creating proprietary in-house applications for iPhone and iPod touch.

EightyEight
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    If I understand the enterprise distribution method correctly you can only distribute applications to people internal to the company, not external customers. Sounds like they need to distribute outside the company. – TWA Jun 11 '09 at 17:54
  • You are right, I was commenting more on the "sell without the appstore" part of the question. I don't have any more information regarding the Enterprise program. It's gotta be AdHoc type distribution without the 100-user limit. If Apple still retains the signing facility for the enterprise apps, then I'd dare not anger them. On the other hand if they hand off a self contained kit, then the OP can probably do whatever s/he wants. Your guess is as good as mine in this case though :) – EightyEight Jun 11 '09 at 20:33
  • If the iPod Touches are owned by one company and leased to another, then the Enterprise program might be workable. If you don't sell the applications separately from the hardware, it probably all qualifies as "internal use". Contacting Apple about the Enterprise program is probably the way to go. – Mark Bessey Jun 15 '09 at 00:13
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Apple also has a B2B Program, which sound like you are aiming for. It allows you to sell your apps directly to other businesses. You can find out more here: https://developer.apple.com/programs/volume/b2b/

el_reverend
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8

Spotify has a free app you can download, but to use it you have to have a Premium account. So you don't have to sell your app for $3000 to go thru the app store.

kenhos
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  • But if you buy premium Spotify inside the iOS app (if you can), 30% of that would go to Apple. – Havvy Dec 03 '14 at 23:53
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You can give the app for free in Appstore, but it will require an online activation. The online activation will cost 3000$. If apple would not accept the app, you can try to create a very limited version (without activation) and get it accepted in appstore. Then release un update for it, which will enable online activation system.

Joe
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  • Thanks Joe - you just gave me the idea of selling our "basic" app for 99c then using the "in-app" purchase feature to offer our clients the "advanced" functionality for $$$. – belwood Sep 09 '11 at 19:44
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    This wouldn't be an in-app purchase. Basically What Joe is saying is correct. Create a web app where users can login and purchase a license for $3,000. Then, create a free iOS app which requires users to login. Validate their credentials and hey-presto. – jcrowson May 18 '12 at 14:42
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    I have an app that works this way and my updates have been alternately approved and rejected depending on exactly how I set it up. So it's definitely a gray area. Remember that Apple reviews every update, not just the first release, so the idea of adding the activation functionality in an update is not going to work. Every little bug fix release is subject to the same scrutiny as the initial release. – arlomedia Feb 19 '15 at 11:52
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It's a pity - the iPhone/iPod touch could make a really nice platform for automation/interface stuff.
I was working on an embedded industrial platform recently - a 16bit micro, 64K memory, a serial port and a 120x128 2 grey level screen for $1000/unit and $10,000 for the appalling OS/devkit.

John Topley
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Martin Beckett
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  • Well with the accessories support on iphone 3 you should be to connect anything to it.. the downside is the apple's proprietary connector and the apple tax if you're selling through the store. – EightyEight Jun 11 '09 at 20:38
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Testflight. Google it. Basically you get an account with testflight. Put your app on testflight. You send your customer an email and they click it on their iphone. It sends testflight an email with your customers device ID. Testflight sends you an email saying "a New customer requested your app" and their device ID. You add their device ID to your provisioning chain and rebuild your App. Upload it to testflight, they get a notification that it's ready, and they can install it. Somewhere in there be sure to get your money :)

roberc
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I can't see how apple could possibly care if you purchase iPod touches, jailbroke them, installed your app and sold them to customers.

For a $3k app, the $220 for an iPod Touch is less than 10% of the sales price.

Carl Coryell-Martin
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    Apple would definitely care, whether they would actually do anything about it is another story. For a business doing something like this would be a huge risk. – TWA Jun 12 '09 at 14:03
  • The biggest issue with this, in my opinion, would be that this is not a very "stable" product: the owner of such an iPod needs but screw up the jailbreak (e.g. update iOS) and they can't use your app anymore. There's too much of an "instruction manual" for a user. Especially considering it's an iPod. – Timo Jan 31 '13 at 12:56
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    Plus how would the OP distribute new versions of the software ? Ask every customer to send the iPod back to them ... – CW0007007 Apr 11 '14 at 09:35
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You could consider a HTML5 app on Safari which offers many of the features of an app like offline access, local storage, canvas for rich graphics etc. No distribution issues and no commission. Depends what you need - access to camera, compass I think is not possible. (Also: works on Android)

Edit: Here's a great intro -

http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/html5-iphone-app/

How to Make an HTML5 iPhone App

Build a version of Tetris that is "for the most part, it’s going to be a pitch-perfect imitation"

  • Full Screen
  • Offline Cache
  • Persistent storage
DavidC
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    Unrelated to the question but in response to the above answer: Cordova (previously known as Phone Gap) allows to wrap web apps into native apps for iOS, Android etc. and also provides access to sensors and camera etc on the phone. A web app (HTML 5) may be created using Sencha Touch or jQuery Mobile. – Farish Oct 17 '12 at 14:19
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If your app is pretty expensive, you probably have few customers and they receive personal support, so what you could do is the following:

  • Have each customer get their own Apple developer license ($99/year). Your support can talk them through the process, or you can probably do it for them. Give them a discount/credit for the $99 they pay to Apple.
  • Compile your apps logic into a library, and make a thin shell that loads code from the library.
  • Give the customer the XCode project for this shell, and the binaries for your code :-). Write a little OS X app that triggers the download of XCode, the compilation, and installation, so they can "compile" and deploy "the app they are developing" (a.k.a. your app) to their devices. Or, do it as a service for them.
  • Don't forget to get your lawyers involved. I'm sure there are ways to look at it in which this is legal, and interpretations in which this violates some license. There is probably a way to make this waterproof, e.g. by calling your customers "developers" and yourself "consultants" in the contract or something. Helping a customer compile their app is not prohibited :-)

If you do this, deployment is not going to be so smooth as if you go the official way, but you'll save a lot of money. For a $3000 app, instead of 30% you'll give Apple 3.33%. I haven't done this, and I don't know anybody who has, and can't even recommend it, but I also can't see why it wouldn't work. So it might be worth a try.

jdm
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Native app, no. However, you can create it as a Web App that's specialized for the iPhone, in which case you circumvent the app store altogether.

BFree
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    Make it a Web App. At $3000, if you make it a native app, I won't be surprised somebody will immediately jailbreak the iPhone, disassemble your App and gift it to half of your customers. Really, and make it a subscription, so they pay you $1000/year. – ilya n. Jun 11 '09 at 18:20
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    For industrial apps piracy is not much of a problem. Shell are not about to give away pirate copies of say an oilwell mapper to Esso. Most other customers are one man consultancies that are even more careful. – Martin Beckett Jun 11 '09 at 18:44
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The way to do this would be to give the app for free in iOs store.
But charge $3000 for an activation code or subscription fee purchased from your website.

You will need to give the free app some basic functionality of some kind, however. Apple won't approve the app if it doesn't do anything without the activation code.

Ken Griffith
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If it was me I would do one of the follow:

1) Submit it to Apple and sell it for free. They then enter a license code bought from you to access the full feature set. Include a welcome page, about us, contact page for unlicensed functionality. As Apple won't approve it if it does nothing.

2) Get the companies you're selling to to open an Enterprise account with Apple. Then you build the IPA and sign it using their credentials and send them the IPA.

Good luck.

CW0007007
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    The contact page will get you rejected, as will any link or reference to the website where the code can be purchased. A function to enter some kind of "unlock code" will also get you rejected. I've tried them both with different apps. Both got through several review cycles but eventually got rejected. – arlomedia Feb 19 '15 at 06:44
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I wish. Short answer, no.

There is some kind of a hack, whereby you isntall your app in a ad hoc manner, but you can only have 100 devices. Painful road if you ask me.

vectorizor
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0

This article summarizes all the answers to this question and discusses Apple's B2B, iOS developer enterprise program, adhoc distribution and testflight.

http://mobiledan.net/2012/03/02/5-options-for-distributing-ios-apps-to-a-limited-audience-legally/

All of the solutions (except the test-oriented solutions, which are limited), however, force you to get Apple's approval before publishing and updating. This process can take time and can leave your users stranded when you have a critical bug that needs a quick update.

If this is a deal breaker for you, you might want to try developing the app for Android, which also has advantages and drawbacks, but in your specific case, gives you more flexibility.

In Android, you can email an APK file, a user clicks it, and the app gets installed on the device.

In iOS, every devices that is not a member of the "enterprise program", "b2b" program or is provisioned for testing, cannot install the app.

Abdo
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-2

You have to jailbreak the iPhone to put an app on it not from the app store.

Charlie
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    This is not true. Both Ad Hoc and Enterprise systems allow you to install applications on an iPhone outside of the App Store. – Chris Porter Jun 11 '09 at 18:02
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    Neither Ad Hoc nor Enterprise are viable solutions in this case, though. – ceejayoz Jun 11 '09 at 18:39
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    Neither is asking their customers to jailbreak their iPhone so their application be installed. – Chris Porter Jun 11 '09 at 19:34
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    Jailbreaking iPhones bought prior to January 2013 is legal :-) – Abdo Feb 05 '13 at 21:34
  • I've edited the original post that contained completely false information. Correct information as I understand it as of Feb 2014 has been added to the original post. Hopefully, this will help people who are looking for more info on how to distribute their apps. – Alex Zavatone Feb 12 '14 at 15:53