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

Question

for a client, I have been developing an app which has been tailored to make their employees every day lives easier. Think of it as a calendar designed to fit the needs of their special business.

Now it turns out that other companies in the business are interested in the very same solution too. My client suggested we could sell the app on the appstore.

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

It is my understanding that a company, once they purchased one copy of the app, may install it on as many devices as they want, as long as they use the devices with the same iTunes account. This is especially true if the company would equip their employees with new devices for the purpose, like my client did. Right?

This is obviously not what I want, I'd rather like to charge a small price per device. Usually, this would cry 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 a whitelist on my server to allow each purchased license to run on just one device, while allowing migration of course. To enable a company to purchase a "volume license", I would offer packs of additional licenses via In-App-Purchases, as well as individual licenses. The app itself would be free while featuring only demo capabilities, full functionality would be available after assigning the device to one of the purchased licenses. Means to manage licenses would be included within the app.

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

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

This question has been flagged as being off-topic twice, so I think I should back up the fact that I am mainly interested in a technical solution (and emphasized the important sub-questions accordingly). Of course I am interested in whether apple allows the proposed use of their appstore, however before I contemplate that further I need to know if there are technical caveats to my approach. I would love to offer code snippets to support the technical nature of my inquiry, however I'm just planning things so there is no code yet...

Answer 1

Thq question was asked long before, but still I feel that the answer might help someone having the issue. All you need is Apple's Volume Purchase Program. It provides the option for custom B2B apps developed by third-party developers, that too can be seen and downloaded only by the authorized client. Cool, isnt it? :-)

For clarifications, see the FAQ

The client can do a bulk purchase, on which they will receive a bunch of URLs. By opening the URL in iOS device is enough to install the app. Of course, you need a Apple Developer account for download and install, I think.

Answer 2

Let anyone download the app for free in the app store, but charge for licenses/subscriptions outside of the app store. You can then require them to register each device they want to use and you charge accordingly.

Can I bypass Apple's in app purchase mechanism by outside billing?

Answer 3

The correct answer here is for the companies you sell to to purchase an Enterprise program from Apple, then for you to license the application to them. You can use over-the-air distribution to get the application onto their devices, and charge them a per-user or per-device fee.

Answer 4

While the core question is still business-related here, and thus off topic, I'll bite.

The standard App Store end user license agreement has this wording:

a. Scope of License: This license granted to You for the Licensed Application by Application Provider is limited to a non-transferable license to use the Licensed Application on any iPhone or iPod touch that You own or control and as permitted by the Usage Rules set forth in Section 9.b. of the App Store Terms and Conditions (the “Usage Rules”). This license does not allow You to use the Licensed Application on any iPod touch or iPhone that You do not own or control, and You may not distribute or make the Licensed Application available over a network where it could be used by multiple devices at the same time. You may not rent, lease, lend, sell, redistribute or sublicense the Licensed Application.

Therefore, if you consult the "App Store Product Usage Rules" section of the iTunes Store Terms and Conditions, you see this wording:

(i) You may download and sync an App Store Product for personal, noncommercial use on any iOS Device you own or control.

(ii) If you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, you may download and sync an App Store Product for use by either (a) a single individual on one or more iOS Devices you own or control or (b) multiple individuals, on a single shared iOS Device you own or control. For example, a single employee may use the Product on both the employee's iPhone and iPad, or multiple students may serially use the Product on a single iPad located at a resource center or library.

(iii) You shall be able to store App Store Products from up to five different Accounts at a time on compatible iOS Devices.

(iv) You shall be able to manually sync App Store Products from at least one iTunes-authorized device to iOS Devices that have manual sync mode, provided that the App Store Product is associated with an Account on the primary iTunes-authorized device, where the primary iTunes-authorized device is the one that was first synced with the iOS Device or the one that you subsequently designate as primary using the iTunes application.

The rules are quite explicit about commercial enterprises not being allowed to just purchase one copy and install it on all devices at that company.

It is for this reason that Apple offers volume discounts for applications purchased in bulk (where the developer has checked the box in iTunes Connect allowing for this). I can't find the business equivalent, but here's Apple's page on the educational bulk discount program.

While I could see how you could use in-app purchase to activate functionality in an application and make sure that it was properly licensed, I've 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 upsell into the full paid application, so Apple has no problem with this.

One thing I do recommend is that you not abuse the ad hoc distribution system to do any licensing workarounds. The last time some geniuses did this caused Apple to clamp down on everyone's ad hoc licenses and make our lives more difficult.