How do you handle distributing MAS apps that don't come from Apple.

Question

With Apple trying to convince publishers to move their software to the app store I'm finding myself in an awkward situation and wonder how others are handeling it. Vendors are producing apps that I can't seem to legally purchase in quantity let alone distribute. Apple's VPP codes work great on their products but what happens when I want to purchase a quantity of paid for software? Worse, I want to distribute it to students at my Academy who don't have admin rights on their computer. Sure I could approve their users so that they could download whatever they wanted from the app store without requiring administrative access, but that's not really something that we're totally comfortable with though we are 100% for the students owning the apps thereafter (BYOD Program currently)

This is not primarily a technical issue (though it's a component). Has anyone had any creative thoughts on how to handle this legally AND efficiently?

mm2270 · Accepted Answer

Yeah, agreed with talkingmoose. There's not much of a technical issue, as far as packaging and distributing a MAS app. Its getting a proper volume license of the software that is often the sticking point. Hopefully Apple will open up VPP for other MAS vendors, not just their apps. With some developers going MAS exclusively, the time is ripe for a volume license model for anyone who wants to participate in it.

As an adjunct, if you have an Apple sales rep and Systems Engineer, I would mention this to him/her. Apple needs to hear from enterprise customers that we want, or rather, NEED this.

talkingmoose · Answer

Contact the vendor directly to ask for a volume license and explain your predicament. Any vendor who refuses to do this is crazy considering you're offering a large purchase without Apple's 30% cut.

If the vendor is indeed crazy then you may need to re-evaluate whether this software is really needed.

We have had to tell some of our own customers that we cannot use the fonts they are requesting, for example, simply because the font vendor is unwilling to enter into a legal contract with our company for how we want to use the fonts. Sometimes, "no" is an answer and we have to substitute.

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