Question

A Mobile Operator needs to distribute an app which is using private APIs onto non-jailbroken devices.

From what I’ve read everywhere so far, this is not possible.

Just out of curiosity: Enterprise Developer Program is reserved for apps that are distributed within the company only and is used by employees or contractors, but how would Apple find out if the user is an employee or just some random iPhone user?

Of course, if the number of customers grows big enough, Apple will notice that some day, get suspicious and shut down the enterprise developer account.

But, suppose, the app is used locally (only in a few countries) and on not that many customers (say, in order of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands), is there a way Apple could find that out? So, what I am wondering is if there is anything measurable on the device or in the app that signifies the user as the employee of the app developer. I doubt that.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Technically I don’t think Apple has any way of knowing on which device an enterprise app was deployed and what it actually does. Also I don’t think Apple would be a lot concerned if you deploy an enterprise app in a few non-employee devices. They only want to ensure that you don’t use the Enterprise license as an alternative distribution mechanism for iOS apps.
According to me the following would be the drawbacks of attempting such a thing:

1) If the distribution to non-employees reaches high levels and this
comes to Apple’s knowledge(through a disgruntled employee maybe), it
is more likely that they would take legal action against the
enterprise(apart from shutting down the account), causing loss of
money and loss of face.

2) Enterprise distribution certificates expire in 1 year(even the
in-house ones), so if your really start an alternate distribution
mecahnism using an enterprise license, you can imagine how difficult
would the after sales support be.

3) Of course ethics is a matter, if you take that into account 🙂