Buying apps in bulk from Apple

From WIP Connector (great blog!)

Apple was in the news recently when it announced its Volume Purchase Program (VPP) for the iTunes App(lication) store. The VPP allows a company to buy apps from the iTunes App(lication) store in bulk quantities: a person within an organization enrolls in the program, goes to a special VPP version of the store, selects the apps they want and the quantity they’d like to purchase, pays via credit card or PayPal, then receives a spreadsheet of redemption codes they can distribute to employees in a number of different ways. Essentially, if a company finds a third-party app in the store they want to roll out across their iOS-carrying workforce, it’s easy for them to do so (Apple also offers a similar program for educational organizations). VPP also supports custom B2B apps, though these must carry a minimum price of $9.99.

Read more directly from Apple Volume Purchasing Guide (.PDF).

My Take:

Enterprises looking for a private app store have options now, and independent developers have to think carefully on the value proposition beyond mobile device management.

The interesting part is 30% share that developers have to share with Apple. Will HTML5 change that equation forcing a new distribution model into the enterprise? Will there be an anti-trust case given the near monopoly status that Apple has towards app distribution? [rant: Including sending cease and desist letters to any one who mentions AppStore outside of their context?]