I want to develop a specific application that only clients of mine would be able to use, how can I limit the app to be downloaded only by people who I aprove ?
Thanks !
+2
A:
Distribute the app normally through the appstore, and require an unlock key to run it. Distribute unlock keys only to your "approved" users.
bta
2010-08-26 21:04:57
You may also need to give an unlock key to Apple as part of the review process.
hotpaw2
2010-08-26 21:36:46
You may also need to give an unlock key to Apple as part of the review process, and anyone can download the app from the App store, so you will need to be careful with any proprietary/confidential data contained in the app.
hotpaw2
2010-08-26 21:46:45
+2
A:
If hhe number of people is less than 100, you can use ad hoc distribution. For that, you don't use the app store at all, but send the app to people by email or place it online. You'll need the device IDs of anyone you want to be able to use it.
Alternatively, if you work for a company with more than 500 employers, you csn use enterprise distribution.
Amorya
2010-08-26 21:06:33
He really wants ad-hoc - then they can't even run the app unless he had their phone ID's pretty much guaranteeing limitation.
Kendall Helmstetter Gelner
2010-08-26 22:03:28
hotpaw2
2010-08-26 21:42:00
+2
A:
As a developer, you can distribute your app to 100 unique devices per year. So, if your population is small enough, you can avoid the app store completely.
Otherwise, you can force some kind of "registration", using a special code, or talk back to a server, or whatever and authorize folks that way, but that will still allow others to actually access the application, even though they may not run it (make particularly note of hackers on jail broken phone if they're interested in your application for whatever reason).
Will Hartung
2010-08-26 21:07:30
A:
Developer and AdHoc Provisioning Profiles expire. So, if you use that method, your clients would have to be willing to continually renew their app certificates. Each client could apply to the developer programs, which would allow up to 100 devices per client.
But the only non-expiring method for non-enterprise size clients is to put the app in the App store for everyone, and require some sort of login or authentication to get access to your proprietary/confidential data or functionality. You might not want to put any data into the app itself, but require it to be downloaded after authentication.
hotpaw2
2010-08-26 21:49:25
A:
Another option not mentioned, which would depend on the nature of your app, would be to develop an HTML 5 based app and use the caching capabilities to turn it into an offline app (if need be).
DA
2010-08-26 21:54:50