Does the iPhone / iPod Touch support bulk enterprise app deployment or would all customers have to buy from app store

Question

I'm just wondering if anybody knows if Apple provides deals to enterprises wanting to deploy an application to a large # of customers. Or does every customer have to go to the app store and buy the application individually giving Apple the 30% cut of your app price.

Thanks

Solution 1

If you develop an application that you want to distribute yourself,it must be digitally signed with a certificate issued by Apple. You must also provide your users with a distribution provisioning profile that allows their device to use the application.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Enterprise_Deployment_Guide.pdf

Solution 2

Yes, they do support enterprise deployments

Solution 3

The >500 employee restriction (mentioned in some of the responses here) has just been removed within the past week. See: alternative-solutions-for-in-house-iphone-enterprise-app-distribution

Comments

[Anand Gautam]

@RyuI am facing the same problem, can you please tell me the correct way that how can i publish my app with >3000 employees using IOS Enterprise program? Thanks

[SinisterMJ]

Note that your company has to have more than 500 employees in order to get an enterprise license.

[Nestor]

But you have to have 500 employees and the installation process is too complex to be practical for external customers.

[zekel]

(This is no longer a requirement.)

[kevinthompson]

The 500-employee requirement is no longer in effect.

[Dan F]

This document is pretty out of date, is there any updated version? Most importantly, is a connection to iTunes still required to install the distribution profile?

[Anand Gautam]

@EricI am facing the same problem, can you please tell me the correct way that how can i publish my app with >3000 employees using IOS Enterprise program? Thanks