Release with the iPhone Developer Program

Sooner or later, you’ll want to run your iPhone app on a real iPhone, not just the simulator. This will cost you time and money as you apply to the iPhone Developer Program. The Standard Program costs $99 USD. You sign up either as an individual or for your institution. We signed up was JadeTower and were welcomed in about four weeks later.

During out wait, we needed to send Apple a photocopy of JadeTower’s Articles of Incorporation, chat with them twice, and send a few emails. Tolerable? Yes. Streamlined? No.

Once you’re into the iPhone Developer Program, your reward is the program portal webpage. The portal is your hub for managing iPhone projects: people, applications, and devices. Preparing your app to run on the iPhone is a lot like playing a game of Cluedo. In Clue, players take turns guessing a who (the suspect) used what (the murder weapon) where (a room). In the iPhone Developer Program, you tell Apple who (the team member) is using what (the app) where (on which iPhone or iPod Touch device). In other words:

How do you tell Apple this information? The program portal has detailed instructions (steps and sub-steps):

• Each team member needs a digital iPhone Development Certificate (6 steps, 23 sub-steps).
• You need to generate an App ID for your app (1 step, 6 sub-steps).
• You need to tell Apple the Unique Device ID (UDID) of every iPhone you want to use your app on (2 steps).
• Combine all the above info into a Development Provisioning Profile and build your app with the profile (3 steps, 14 sub-steps).
• Total: 12 steps, 43 sub-steps.

Though the steps are clear, the process will take a few hours. Once you’ve tried, tested, and optimized your app for the device (took us less time than getting the app to run in the first place), you’re ready to add it to the App Store.