We discovered that the most successful app developer “Tapbots” has a special kind of link to the App Store.
First, the link looks like this: It is a clever affiliate link:
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=Fu2a2g8N61Q&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252FviewSoftware%253Fid%253D308928075%2526mt%253D8%2526partnerId%253D30
And then it gets redirected to this:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/convertbot-amazing-unit-converter/id308928075?mt=8
After redirection iTunes starts on my mac. On the iPad the App Store app launches. We tried to modify this last link to match our app. But when clicking on it it shows this iTunes web page only and never launches iTunes.
The iTunes web page says “Open iTunes to buy and download apps”. Sounds like “do it yourself” and nothing happens.
Does this only happen with affiliate links? I found no documentation from Apple which explains how to make a link that launches iTunes automatically.
It appears that you have to link to itms:// instead of http://