Is it possible to mass update multiple iPhone applications?

Question

I'm not all that familiar with Apple's iPhone development system, but I'm trying to figure out if theres a way for developers who create custom iPhone apps to update their apps on a mass scale. For example, would a company who publishes hundreds of apps have to resubmit every app they've made manually if they find a minor bug that affects all their apps (assuming they have used a template)? Or is it possible to somehow use or build a custom program that can make this process easier, by automatically generating or updating apps? I don't believe Apple has an API or anything, but it just seems like it would be a nightmare for these developers to fix bugs, and thought maybe I was missing something.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Answer 1

Apple provides no way to automate this. In theory you could write a program to simulate a browser to login and upload new binaries for you, but I'm not sure Apple would like that very much, and it would be a lot of work.

In addition, one might argue that if the apps are similar enough to warrant this automation, it should probably be one app instead of many. But that may be an over generalization without knowing your use case.

Answer 2

The short answer: NO

Answer 3

Isn't there that separate application that you can use to talk to iTunesConnect? (Though I still don't think it's possible to do mass updates.)

Answer 4

There's the Application Loader http://itunesconnect.apple.com/apploader/ApplicationLoader_1.2.dmg (requires login)

It doesn't do bulk uploads, but it does provide a maybe more accessible interface.