Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone
What does "ad hoc" app distribution mean for users?
In the din of announcements from WWDC on Monday, one of the underreported features for iPhone apps is "ad hoc" app distribution: registering up to 100 iPhones, and distributing your apps yourself.
Macworld's John Welch has a good overview of Ad Hoc and enterprise distribution, and what it means for IT departments. "[H]aving your applications distributed from your own servers on your own network just makes sense," he writes. "It makes security issues simpler, saves on external bandwidth usage, and simplifies the process of adding, updating, and removing applications."
Webmonkey, on the other hand, completely missed this part of the keynote, writing a review of the App Store that omits the ad hoc distribution plan and calls the App Store's exclusivity "yuck." Plus, it neglects to mention the still-thriving jailbreak community, and the legions of Installer.app users.
Ad hoc distribution means great things for proprietary apps for teams, classrooms, and large organizations. Sure, a 100-client limit might be a little small, and it remains to be seen how clients will be certified (that is, if you have to connect to the Mothership).
Do you plan on using ad hoc or enterprise distribution for your organization? Sound off in comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Josh said 5:32PM on 6-11-2008
Surely the most important aspect of ad hoc is for developers to have private beta releases. Can't catch all them bugs on your own!
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Katanna said 6:57PM on 6-11-2008
Great point! I was wondering how they were going to de-bug their programs...
Matthew
Ted Lemon said 7:08PM on 6-11-2008
I'll probably use ad-hoc distribution if I come up with an app and the app store rejects it. That's assuming that I can even do ad-hoc distribution with a $100 license - it's not clear to me yet whether or not you can do ad-hoc distribution without the enterprise license.
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cthree said 12:09PM on 6-12-2008
According to the keynote as I remember it ad-hoc means you can drop any app into iTunes and have it installed when you sync. Enterprise distribution involved "certifying" specific phones to run specific custom apps, that you could enter a list of certified phones and only they would get the app.
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Eric said 6:24PM on 6-11-2008
Still doesn't answer my big question... how do they enforce it. Will you need the $100/year signing certificate? What prevents you from changing one small thing about the app and installing it on another 100 iPhones?
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AC said 6:40PM on 6-11-2008
Yes, large corporations will have big resistance to iTunes on the desktop.
A take on the Installer.app model would be better IMO:
iPhone users would be able to add custom sources to their iPhone's App Store, and Apple would provide software for Corporations run centrally inside the corporate network (how's "App Store Front"?)
Users point their iPhone to the corporate service and install over the air. Would work for update notification too.
Sources & phones could be registered with Apple for validation. Because it's inside the network, user has to authenticate (e.g. VPN) to access the service.
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SIP said 6:46PM on 6-11-2008
The App Store looks a bit like Installer for jailbroken phones, see here:
http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/appstore/
Maybe Apple will provide mini-App Stores for ad-hoc distribution of apps?
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Info@ said 6:52PM on 6-11-2008
Hopefully it could mean AdHack and we will be able to share apps on the fly.
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Tom Twigg said 7:15PM on 6-11-2008
I seem to remember 3 means of distribution from the keynote ... app store, enterprise intranet, and ad hoc ... large companies can install on a set of their iphones and are not limited to the 100 max. number of the ad hoc system. I'm sure we'll all learn more about the details in the coming weeks, but businesses need not worry about a limited number of installations.
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Joseph said 8:30PM on 6-11-2008
I am being extremely near-sighted, but i cannot think of a company beyond Disney or Apple that would have 100 iphones. I guess some fortune 500 companies like Fleur, i dont know, but i dont see fleur needing proprietary apps.
Sam said 9:52PM on 6-11-2008
I can imagine any number of large hospitals having hundreds of doctors needing specialized software, but maybe that's not as commonplace as I think.
Todd Sieling said 12:01AM on 6-12-2008
@Joseph
I think there are quite a few companies that would want larger quantities of iphones, as many tasks done with dedicated or limited purpose handheld devices could be converged with a company-provided mobile phone and media player. That's a powerful combo for information distribution in a company, and being able to do that through a custom, self-managed app is a solid enterprise strategy.
miklm said 5:52PM on 6-27-2008
Joseph, the company I work for has over 30,000 PCs and laptops, many of those mobile (field workers) and a huge number of smartphones and BlackBerries. I'm not saying that we'll adopt the iPhone (that's WAY over my pay grade) but if we did, 100 would be a tiny drop in the bucket for even a minor application. I can think of a LOT of things that we could use them for, and would involve thousands of devices.
That said, we're a Microsoft and old-school Unix/mainframe/IBM shop, and I don't think there's a Mac in the company outside of the advertising/graphics/media departments so I'm not holding my breath for this company to adopt it.
Jerod said 10:59AM on 6-12-2008
Ad hoc all the way. I'm only interested in releasing in house software.
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JG said 10:44PM on 6-11-2008
you guys are being nearsighted. Our company is a very small law firm that has 120 total users on the network.
50 of us have blackberries. 100 iphones or blackberries for one company is nothing.
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chippydip said 1:36AM on 6-12-2008
My guess would be that ad-hoc would work the same way the current beta certificates work. I haven't gotten a beta invite yet, but my understanding is it works like this for each iPhone you want to test on:
1) Generate a certificate for that particular iPhone (on your computer)
2) Upload the cert to the apple site to get it approved/signed/whatever
3) Now, when you build applications and sign them, you will be able to deploy to the phones you have previously authorized.
As a result, I can't imagine Apple has any way of preventing an application that has already been installed from running, even if you de-authorize that phone to make room for another device (though, with support for upto 100 devices, I can't really see this being an issue anyway...if you want to give an app to more than 100 people then you are probably either an enterprise, or you will be using the App Store...in either case, the 100 limit doesn't apply).
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clarp said 6:44AM on 6-12-2008
Does anybody know if it will be possible to have multiple AdHoc licenses?
By that I mean the ability to distribute to "pockets" of users each being less than 100 users in total... Each pocket only accessing data over the app that is specific to them.
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Joel said 11:59AM on 6-12-2008
Some how a 100 limit seems to contradict the description of the iPhone as an Enterprise class device.
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Will said 4:26PM on 7-08-2008
I think that they should let you upload an app to their servers, and then Apple should let you add iphones to a list via their IMEIs, serials, special codes related to their iPhone and the app store only, etc which would let those particular iphones get them automatically, perhaps even free (so that you can sell an app, but give certain users, maybe people who have donated to you, or friends, free versions of your app).
Example:
> You create an app, called 'HelloWorld.app'.
> You login via a web browser to ADC and upload your app, you are given a link to use where you can add iPhones via their IMEIs, or maybe a special code for each iphone related to the App Store
> You sell it for £10 each
> You make money off of it, but some people had donated code and money to you, and you would like to thank them.
> You request their code and they happilly provide it to you.
> You navigate to the link and add their code to the list for HelloWorld.app
> On the friend's iphone, the free App appears as a free update, and the updates badge is shown
> The friend opens the AppStore and goes to updates, where s/he discovers the free app, they can either dismiss it or install it
Anyone else think this is a good idea for giving people free access to your application? Apple, if you are reading this, what do you think?
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