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There's a neat iOS app called MobiForms (www.mobiforms.com). It's available for the iPod/iPhone yet somehow they are bypassing the Apple app store and selling it to you directly. How are they doing that? This is a unique trick I have not encountered yet.

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Could you elaborate a bit on your question. Also check the FAQ - this site is geared to expert users and not so much the app development process details. Specifically mobiforms is a toolbox for making code to run on many devices so of course those apps for blackberry or other OS bypass Apple's store. – bmike♦ Mar 11 '12 at 15:11

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there is no MobiForms App in the iOS App store.

The latest version of MobiForms now supports Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. MobiForms supports many Apple iOS specific features including the built-in camera and GPS. The major advantage of MobiForms is that unlike the Apple iOS/iPhone SDK you do not need to own an Apple Mac or pay for the expensive yearly membership of the iPhone Developer Program. The MobiForms Developer will run on a Windows PC or an Apple Mac. Deployment of the MobiForms app is done via the USB cable and the Apple iTunes client on Windows PC or Apple Mac.

Basically what you are buying from them is a cross platform development tool.

The MobiForms adhoc deployment approach totally avoids the Apple App Store and app approval process. The app approval process alone can take weeks. Note that for each Apple iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch the MobiForms support team have to register its UUID with Apple to receive a runtime certificate for the MobiForms runtime client to run. The MobiForms licence includes free registration for one iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. There is a small fee (£10 approx $15) for each additional iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Additional MobiForms iPhone certificates can be purchased from the MobiForms iPhone Certificate Buy Now button.

The development tool outputs an app, and you then pay them to make your iDevice a registered development device, and you can then install the app on your phone as if you were a real iOS developer.

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So they use the adhoc method to distribute? I thought there was an expiration time like 90 days with that method? – Craig Mar 11 '12 at 20:17

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