[semi-OT] Distributing apps for iOs outside iTunes

Wed Mar 18 11:02:27 EDT 2015

I have some points to consider here having done it both ways a few
times:
1) I'd definitely have them give you sufficient permissions to manage
the certificates, keys and profiles yourself in their account. You still
do everything apart from sign-up, pay and sign (click through) contracts
with Apple, the account is just in their name.
2) The enterprise account's extra $200/year should be saved in the cost
of your time not managing profile updates and issuing new builds when
devices change (maybe not for a lot less than 10 people, but still the
difference must be almost nothing in the total development cost).
3) It also removes any delay for a new employee/device - the enterprise
signed build can be installed automatically without going through the
whole UDID collection, provisioning profile update and rebuild process.
This is what enterprise accounts are for. Not having to explain why it
doesn't work on new devices (which is after all rather technical and all
down to Apple) is also of value. Overall a better customer experience.
4) If you build up a decent sized client base over time you will
struggle with the 100 device limit, even in multiple standard developer
accounts (I have access to 4 accounts at the moment, 2 of them are
almost at the limit). I've mostly used ad-hoc builds for demos for
potential new clients - even that can fill up your device slots over
time.
5) In theory you can remove old devices but do you want your clients to
have to tell you when they retire old ones? Will they remember anyway?
Analytics can no longer tell you which UDIDs are still in use, since
developer access got cut off some time ago.

Technically ad-hoc distribution shouldn't be used to deliver to clients
for internal builds but I can confirm that Apple shows no signs of
caring about enforcing that.

-- 
  Mark Wilcox
  mark at sorcery-ltd.co.uk

On Wed, Mar 18, 2015, at 12:06 PM, Mike Kerner wrote:
> I take this the other way:  I want more control, not less.  I take it
> personally when something I build isn't freaking awesome.  I consider
> other
> enterprises' employees to be part of my team when I write something for
> them.  I am their IT guy, so the last thing I want to do is take a chance
> on someone "over there" dropping the ball and making something break,
> that
> I then have to clean up, especially when they're under the gun.  Spoiling
> them rotten is my privilege.  They will be in one of my profiles.
> 
> On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 7:58 AM, Matthias Rebbe | M-R-D <
> matthias_livecode_150811 at m-r-d.de> wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > > Am 18.03.2015 um 12:16 schrieb Colin Holgate <colinholgate at gmail.com>:
> > >
> > > I would do a mixed approach. Get your client to join at $99 per year,
> > and to have you as a team member. They would include at least one of your
> > devices in their list, so you can test installs, and you would be able to
> > build for up to 100 devices. If they only need about 10, that would cover
> > quite a few employee and device changes.
> > >
> > And if i remember right every year you can reset that list of devices.
> > This would allow you to delete non active devices and it increases the
> > number of possible test devices again.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >
> > >> On Mar 18, 2015, at 6:23 AM, Mark Wilcox <mark at sorcery-ltd.co.uk>
> > wrote:
> > >>
> > >> I've used Ad Hoc Distribution for this a few times before - it can
> > become a
> > >> bit of a pain because employees join and people get new devices - you
> > have
> > >> to manage updates to the provisioning profile manually - more often than
> > >> you'd think.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> A better option is if you can get the client to join the iOS Developer
> > >> Enterprise Program:
> > >>
> > >> https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> It's $299/year but then you can get Enterprise distribution profiles/
> > >> certificates. These don't have any device restrictions at all, it's just
> > >> part of Apple's rules that they're only allowed for internal use within
> > an
> > >> Enterprise. This removes all the issues with collecting UDIDs and
> > keeping
> > >> provisioning profiles updated.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >>
> > >> Mark Wilcox
> > >>
> > >> mark at sorcery-ltd.co.uk
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> On Wed, Mar 18, 2015, at 06:36 AM, jbv at souslelogo.com wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Hi list
> > >>> One of my clients needs an app for his employees that will run
> > >>> on their iphones or itabs. Those employees are very few (less than
> > >>> 10) and no one else will be interested in the app because it's
> > >>> related to a very specific activity, therefore using iTunes doesn't
> > >>> seem relevant.
> > >>> I took a look at Apple's distribution options, and the "Ad Hoc
> > >>> Distribution" looks like the way to go, but I was wondering if
> > >>> anyone had already use it, or if there was any better option...
> > >>>
> > >>> Thanks in advance
> > >>> jbv
> > >>>
> > >>>
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