B2B programming on iPad (and iPhone)

Hi there.

I'm digging through iPad/iPhone programming options/opportunities. What makes me wonder is: Is there ANY 100% problem-free (i.e. no warranty removal) way to do B2B programming on this thing?

I'll try to explain. Last few years I did quite a lot B2B programming for different mobile platforms. Tasks usually were simple. There was some client asking for specific application do be deployed on some not-so-big number of phones (from 20 up to 200 maximum). And every time ( was it Windows CE/Mobile, Nokia's Symbian S60 or was it Java ME ) preparing some small installation package was everything what was necessary to do. Sometimes it required purchasing some not very expensive license to sign the package. Sometimes everything was OK without it.

Now I see that on iOS any way whatsoever to install anything is to go through Appstore. How to avoid that? What if client wants to keep application strictly private? Is it possible to customize applications/install them from Xcode? How much effort it is, and is it worth it?

iPhone Enterprise Developer Program is your "friend". Allows ad-hoc distribution of applications and costs only $299. However, it is available only for organizations with more than 500 employees and Dun and Bradstreet number. Since you are a small shop, you are probably not eligible for it (check with Apple, though!), but your potential clients might be.

Update: An alternative would be to get a separate standard dev license for each client and provision all their devices as test devices for that account. That is not strictly illegal, though I suspect Apple might frown upon such practice. However, that limits you to 100 devices per license and requires you to manually provision each device. Way too much hassle, unfortunately.

Thx for info but not really an option in my case :(

yatsa 2010-06-29 21:48:46

That ^^^ was about Enterprise program. Registering client devices as test one may be an option in some cases but in most of them - yes it's too much hassle. Thank you very much anyway. Looks like Apple doesn't like ANY developers besides those which are on their chain.By the way - using this way is it possible to install on client's device some Apple-enemy engine? I.e. scripting one? Looks that yes

yatsa 2010-06-29 22:13:00

You can install pretty much anything through ad-hoc distribution, as long as it's signed with a valid Apple developer certificate and there's matching provisioning profile for that cert.

Franci Penov 2010-06-30 09:11:47

Yes, Apple does not like any developers that are not "on their chain" (as you put it :-)). After all, they are a corporation that needs to make money for their shareholders and there's no money from developers that don't go through their developer programs.

Franci Penov 2010-06-30 09:13:15

I realize my answer is not to your liking; nevertheless, that's the current situation. I've listed the only two options for deploying iPhone apps outside of the AppStore without jailbreaking it.

Franci Penov 2010-06-30 09:15:03

ansaurus

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B2B programming on iPad (and iPhone)

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