Apple AppStore and developers identification policy

Question

I have a little bit of confusion about iOS Apps publication.

The first time you come across developing Apps for the iPhone you intend to publish on the AppStore, you have to register as an iOS developer.

But what if you're developing that App for somebody else like a customer?

I can guess the entity which produces that App which must appear on the download form in the AppStore should be the customer itself.

Nevertheless, to be able to deploy the App to non-development devices you have to attach the App proper Apple-issued certificates; but in the case of developing for third parties which entity should be configured into the App as its producer/developer with its proper certificate?

Should your customer be registered as a developer and thus you should possess their valid certificate?

Thanks for some light.

Answer 1

Your client/customer should not depend on your developer account, i.e. they should have their own account to publish the app. This is for several reasons:

• You may have multiple client/customer. Obviously they will want different publisher name/branding. You can not set multiple publisher name from one account.
• More importantly, when the account is expired all apps related to that will be removed from sale. So your client should not depend on that. You even may not want to renew your account, may be you don't have any customer at that time and you don't need a developer account. Your previous customers should not be in trouble for that.

So my suggestion is, discuss the above two with your customer. If they are okay with these restrictions, then use your own account. Otherwise ask them for their account.