I am close to complete an iPhone app that aggregates information from many businesses. I have made agreements with very few businesses -meaning that the content is not valuable yet.
Problem is that I first need to release my app to attract interest from other businesses. But during that period, people may install my app, feel disappointed because of the low value and give me negative ratings.
I am afraid that Ad-Hoc distribution is not a viable option because I got few resources (time and money) to collect the businesses’ device IDs and generate certificates for them.
My lack of experience does not help either (this is my first app). What could you recommend me from your experience? Really appreciate your help.
I would highly suggest that you hold out with the release until you have at least one or two big names. This is the chicken and the egg but you need to have a viable product before you sell it. If your businesses don’t see the value in your product now, they never will. It sounds like you’re planning to woo them with thousands of users but there’s no reason thousands of people would download the app if it’s useless at the time of purchase.
If you can get one major business to back you, then sell the app and use that as leverage against the other companies to get them to join ship.
Hope this helps.