Development of apps for multiple companies/clarification on guideline 4.3, Spam

Have you reviewed the MTL links, below?

I'd postulate this isn't so much about spam, as it is a move by Apple to see that when a company puts an app in the store, they do so using an owned Developer Account, not via a 3rd party.

As it appears you've used the word 'client' 14 times, my opinion is that the new 'enforcement' operation has you in it's headlights.

>Since we have seen other companies who appear to be building with the same set-up we do not think we are in conflict

No app in the store now is any promise of whether new apps will/won't be approved/rejected. Try to imagine all the rejected apps you are unaware of that perhaps demonstrate you may be in conflict, simply by their absence

My advice is to work as a consultant for your client, aiding them towards obtaining their own Developer Account and any subsequent app store submittals. They will thank you for it in the long run.

Good luck.

Yes, Apple believes that 4.3 applies directly to what you are doing. To quote 4.3:

If your app has different versions for specific locations, sports teams, universities, etc., consider submitting a single app and provide the variations using in-app purchase.

Also, if your app is for use only by employees of each 'client' then consider using the Enterprise or B2B programs designed for such limited distribution.

Thank you for your reply,

We considered this upon review but found the guidelin unclear. For example one interpretation was: You can't just repackage an app with a different bundle id for "Some University Class of 2016" and "Some University Class of 2017". You would instead create "Some University" app and offer and inapp purchase "Class of 2016" or "Class of 2017". The same could be true for say "Some Travel App" where you wouldn't repackage the app under different bundle ids for "Some Travel App: Mars", "Some Travel App: Venus", etc. You would instead publish "Some Travel App" with cool features for when your traveling, and then offer an in app purchase for say "Neptune". That makes sense.

We we're trying to put a finger on is the rules for developing for businesses in a specific industry, say Car dealers. Say our clients are "Malcoms Dealership", "Inara's Dealership", and "Rivers Dealership". We produce and app for each of our clients dealerships. We use an underlying codebase that is the same but the produced app is specific to each dealership. So content for the sales team, images descriptions etc is defferent in each app. Is that a violation?

Thanks Again, Your thoughts are appreciated!

I think if the look-and-feel of the app is the same or very similar, then Apple will consider it a violation of this guideline. The underlying code matters less than the appearance of the app to the user.

The business modesl are quite different:

1) an app that accesses multiple dealers in my area - I enter the specific dealer and get a display of the product offerings at that dealership - I enter a different dealership and get those offerings. This is for a customer shopping for a type of product - like a car.

2) an app for a dealership - I download the app and know everything about that dealership - the salesmen's names, the hours, the history of the dealership. This is for a customer of that dealership who has already established a relationship with the dealership.

we are reviewing our deployment with the information we have available to us. Thank you for your time!