How do I deploy an iPhone application (without the App Store)?

Dave picture Dave · Jan 18, 2011 · Viewed 21.8k times · Source

Please forgive the noob question.

I've been developing this little app (with Unity) for some time. The development profile expires every 90 days. That's life.

Now I want to take it to the 'next' level, which is 'actual deployment'. Here's the catch: I don't really want to sell this in the App Store. It's a very specific app for a very specific target audience (a particular company). It's not a game or anything anyone else would find fun or useful, it pertains only to this one company's business.

This is my first iPhone app, so I don't know, is there a different kind of cert or profile or something I should be using? Or can I 'publish' things without Apple needing to care? If it does have to go through Apple, is there a category of app like "not porn, not game, not harmful, just some utility, please let some people get it and use it"?

Answer

David Mitchell picture David Mitchell · Jan 18, 2011

What you probably need is an Enterprise account for the business to which you're selling (you can sign up here: http://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/). With an Enterprise account, you can distribute in-house apps over the air to members of the organization. That's the only officially-sanctioned way to get "permanent" apps onto a phone without the app store.