How to sell iPhone apps in bulk to a commercial customer?

Question

For a client, I’m developing an application that has been configured so that their employees work easier every day. Think of it as a calendar designed to meet the needs of their special business.

Now it turns out that other companies in the business are also interested in the same solution. My client suggested that we could sell the application in the AppStore.

Since the application is equally useful for companies with hundreds of employees, as well as for a team of five people, I wonder what would be the best way to sell it.

As far as I understand, a company, having bought one copy of the application, can install it on as many devices as it wants if they use devices with the same iTunes account. This is especially true if the company will equip its employees with new devices for this purpose, as my client did. Right?

This is clearly not what I want, I would prefer to charge a small price for the device. Usually it pays for a volume license, which is not part of the appstore concept, except for educational institutions.

Now I am looking for a convenient way to achieve something with the same effect.

I was thinking about checking the UDID of the device against the white list on my server to allow each purchased license to work on only one device, while allowing migration. To allow the company to acquire a “volume license”, I offer additional license packages through In-App-Purchases, as well as separate licenses. The application itself would be free, showing only demo features, full functionality would be available after assigning the device to one of the acquired licenses. License management tools will be included in the application.

What do you guys think? Any technical reasons why this concept could fail?
Do you know examples that actually implement something like this?
Any other ideas on how to sell apps in bulk? Maybe there are even some examples of how to implement something like this?

Do you think the apple will approve this use of in-app purchases? (I know this last question is not like the one that can be answered here without uncertainty, but let me hear what your gut feeling says ..)

This question is marked off-topic twice, so I think I should support the fact that I am mainly interested in the technical solution (and important subqueries were emphasized accordingly). Of course, I’m interested in whether Apple allows the proposed use of its application store, but before I think that I need to know further whether there are technical reservations about my approach. I would like to offer code snippets to support the technical nature of my request, however I just plan things so that there is no code yet ...

Answer 1

Although the main issue is still related to business, and thus turn off the topic, I will bite.

In the standard App Store app, the end user license agreement has this wording:

a. Scope of the license: This license is granted to you for licensed Applications from the application provider limited by a non-transferable license to use the Licensed Application on any iPhone or iPod touch that you own or control and as authorized by the Rules in Section 9.b. from the App Store Terms of Service ("Terms of Use"). This license does not permit the use of the Licensed Application on any iPod touch or iPhone that you do not own or control, and you cannot distribute or the Licensed Application is accessible through networks where it can be used simultaneously with several devices. You may not lease, rent, lease, sell, redistribute or sublicense the Licensed Application.

Therefore, if you refer to the "App Store Product Terms of Service " section of the " iTunes Store Terms of Use" , you will see this wording:

(i) You can download and sync the Product Store app for personal, non-commercial use on any iOS device you own or control.

(ii) If you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, you can download and synchronize the App Store Product for use either (a) on one or several iOS devices you own or control, or (b) several people on one common iOS Device, which you own or manage. For For example, one employee can use the Product as an employee for iPhone and iPad, or several students can use the Product sequentially on the same iPad, located in the resource center or library.

(iii) You can store the Store Products app to up to five different accounts for simultaneously compatible iOS devices.

(iv) You will be able to manually synchronize the products of the application store, at least one authorized iTunes device for iOS Devices with manual synchronization mode, provided that the product in the App Store is associated with an account on the primary device authorized by iTunes, where the main authorized iTunes This is the device that was first synchronized with the iOS device or one that you subsequently designated as using the iTunes application.

The rules are perfectly clear for businesses that are not allowed to simply buy one copy and install it on all devices in that company.

It is for this reason that Apple offers volume discounts for applications purchased in bulk (where the developer checked iTunes Connect to enable this). I can’t find the business equivalent, but here is the Apple Page on educational discounting program .

While I could see how you can use the in-app purchase to activate the functionality in the app and make sure that it was properly licensed, I heard complaints about the practical difficulties of deploying applications using this in educational and business settings. Many applications use this approach for free Lite versions that grow in a fully paid application, so Apple has no problem with this.

One thing I recommend is that you don’t abuse the special distribution system in order to use any license bypass methods. The last time that some geniuses did this, Apple forced all special licenses and made life difficult.

Answer 2

The correct answer is here for the companies you sell to buy Apple’s corporate program, and then so that you can license the application to them. You can use air distribution to get the application on your devices, and charge a fee for each user or device.

Answer 3

Let someone download the app for free in the app store, but pay for licenses / subscriptions outside the app store. You can then require them to register each device that they want to use, and charge a fee accordingly.

Can I bypass Apple's in-app purchase mechanism through external billing?

Answer 4

The question was asked long before that, but I still feel that the answer can help someone who has a problem. All you need is an Apple Volume Purchase Program . It provides an opportunity for custom B2B applications developed by third-party developers that can also be viewed and downloaded only by an authorized client. Cool, right ?:-)

See FAQ for clarification.

A customer can make a bulk purchase where they will receive a bunch of URLs. By opening the URL on your iOS device, just install the application. Of course you need an Apple Developer account to download and install, I think.