Question

Is it possible to have an iPad alone app that is not put up on the app store. The app is to be used within some selected members. Hence it need not go into the app store as its not for public use.

Answer 1

Well there are a few well known possibilities:

• Ad Hoc Distribution: Allows up to 100 devices, need to renew provisioning profiles once per year
• Enterprise Distribution: Unlimited devices, enterprises only, need to renew provisioning profiles once per year
• Custom B2B Apps: Sell your App to a limited audience only using the App Store, will need to go through review
• Jailbreaking: Do whatever you like

Edit: Note that for the first three options you need to enroll in one of Apples Developer Programs.

Edit 2: Both of the first two options share the restriction that they are meant for distribution within an organisation or business only.

The primary purpose of Ad Hoc Distribution is testing, but it is not illegal to use ad hoc distributed apps on a regular basis. Caution is necessary however because you need to register devices for ad hoc distribution with Apple, and those devices are eligible for future pre-release iOS versions which must not be made available to persons who have not agreed upon Apples NDA.

Enterprise Distribution is available to enterprises only and doesn’t require devices to be registered. Instead it is your responsibility to restrict access to enterprise distributed apps to persons affiliated in some way with your business or organisation.

You’re not allowed to collect payments for apps distributed in either of those ways.

All of that being said, it is acutally very common for developers to ad hoc distribute apps to persons who are not members or employees of their business. Think of a individual indie game developer for example – there’s just no alternative available for him when it comes to beta testing. Apple appears to tolerate this, as long as it happens for honest reasons. As a rule of thumb, I’d ad hoc distribute apps only to persons I know and trust.