[BillCN]

Is anybody out there distributing/selling apps created with MobiOne without using the Apple App Store?
If so, how are you going about it?

[Paul_paul]

The only other way to distribute native apps other than the app store is the iOS Developer Enterprise Program but you must be a company or organization with a D-U-N-S number to apply. You can develop and distribute In-House iOS Apps, the cost is $299/year
https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/

You could use Android, there is no approval process for Google Play and just a one off payment of $25.00, according to figures released Android has a much larger audience than iPhones but I’m not so sure.

You could use web apps but unless Apple fixes the issues with iOS7 and Mobile Safari they will not function correctly.

[BillCN]

No, what I mean is simply distributing our apps created with MobiOne as they exist without being “Apple-ized” from, say, one’s own web site or some other site. Is anybody distributing/selling their apps in this way? For example, I develop my app, upload it to MobiOne, open my email on my iPhone, click on the URL, and voila! I have an app running on my iPhone without having to deal with Apple in any way.

[Paul_paul]

What you mean is a web app, I was supplying web apps to small business for a few months but changed to native apps a while ago, being in the app store was more prestigious and easier to sell.
I am glad I did because at the moment there are so many issues with iOS7 that my web apps would be unusable.

Unless apple makes changes to mobile safari (no guarantee they will) you won’t be able to add an icon to the device home screen and many functions (app cache, back button, send email, url, sms, alerts etc) will not work. You could run the app in another browser with a bookmark to the app but without a home screen icon it’s all a bit pointless, you might just as well have a mobile enabled website and connect to it with Safari.

Even if the issues with apple gets sorted out you have other problems because Mobione will only host your web app for a limited time (50 days? I can’t remember exactly) you will definitely have to host the apps yourself as you mentioned.

I hosted my web apps successfully but it took a while to get it right. You cannot host a native app yourself but you can host an Android app yourself, only trouble is they wont auto update like they do in Google Play.

I don’t know why people don’t like apple, the distribution process is easy and the apps are so much better.

[BillCN]

Thanks for the informative response!

I actually have nothing against Apple at all, I was just wondering whether or not there were other avenues than “just” the App Store.

[Author]

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