iPad App Distribution

[bogeyman]

Anyone know how to package and distrubute a native iPad app that is not intended for public use, but for a single organisation?

This is somewhat hypothetical at the moment, but could influence some Plan B business.

If I want say 200 employees of Company X to be able to use the App on their iPads, but don't want to put it on the AppStore for everyone, how do I do it? I'm talking about a native app, not a web app.

I know with Apple's developer licence you can tie a number of unique device serials to the (non-AppStore) distribution, but this would be impractical.

Asked this in several iPhone/iPad dev places, but not getting any clear answers. I know it's possible. I thought perhaps one of you guys might know.

Any ideas?

[NickFitz]

The only officially-supported way to do this is through the iOS Developer Enterprise Program.

[bogeyman]

The only officially-supported way to do this is through the iOS Developer Enterprise Program.

Yes. Thanks Nick.

[yorkshireman]

I understand that IOS 4.2 that was released yesterday allows deployment of Apps to devices wirelessly Apple - iPad in Business - iOS 4.2 Enterprise Features - This would be worth investigating.

[eek]

I understand that IOS 4.2 that was released yesterday allows deployment of Apps to devices wirelessly Apple - iPad in Business - iOS 4.2 Enterprise Features - This would be worth investigating.

That doesn't really solve the issue as you still need for the app to be signed and approved somehow.

I think one solution would be a public application with a very high price (to discourage downloads) which can then be installed separately.

If the program cannot be standardised the only solution is custom deployments via the Enterprise program.

[bogeyman]

Android would be a better platform for my intentions if there was a tablet as good as the iPad (maybe there is but I'm not aware). Also happens the potential customer for this already has a lot of iPads so it's not really on.

Anyone done anything with Appcelerator Titanium? This allows you to use the same codebase for iPhone/iPad and Android and no need to get my head around Objective C.

It still doesn't solve the problem of signing the app etc. Just looked at a Video on the Appcelerator site for how to do this. Talk about convoluted!

Nick's (ISO Developer Enterprise Program) solution seems the only one that does what I need. Another $299 a year tho

[markmm]

Android would be a better platform for my intentions if there was a tablet as good as the iPad (maybe there is but I'm not aware). Also happens the potential customer for this already has a lot of iPads so it's not really on.

Anyone done anything with Appcelerator Titanium? This allows you to use the same codebase for iPhone/iPad and Android and no need to get my head around Objective C.

It still doesn't solve the problem of signing the app etc. Just looked at a Video on the Appcelerator site for how to do this. Talk about convoluted!

Nick's (ISO Developer Enterprise Program) solution seems the only one that does what I need. Another $299 a year tho

Is there no way you can develop it using HTML 5, javascript etc? Look at google maps and gmail, you can create very rich apps and it would get round the app store headache.

[bogeyman]

Is there no way you can develop it using HTML 5, javascript etc? Look at google maps and gmail, you can create very rich apps and it would get round the app store headache.

That's pretty much what Titanium lets you do, but it packages it as a native app. It also allows you to access to native interface components which a web app doesn't. Also, performance is better using a native app.

I do plan to prototype it as a web app though. Just to get something to demo quickly. Maybe it will be good enough and so avoid the App Store guff.

[d000hg]

IF you can avoid having to support older browsers then by the time you have something, browser-based will be pretty powerful in Chrome, IE9, FF and presumably Safari... however on mobile devices what's the story there?

Flash would be an option if it ran on iOS; decent Android tablets will definitely be around in a year or less and probably Windows ones too.

[Scrag Meister]

IF you can avoid having to support older browsers then by the time you have something, browser-based will be pretty powerful in Chrome, IE9, FF and presumably Safari... however on mobile devices what's the story there?

Flash would be an option if it ran on iOS; decent Android tablets will definitely be around in a year or less and probably Windows ones too.

Advent Vega