Question about installing apps

A friend who runs a tablet repair business has asked me if I can write a small iOS app to enable him to test iOS devices that he has repaired.  Now the writing of the app isn’t a problem but is there a way for him to be able to get it onto devices (90% iPads, 10% iPod Touches) without having to go through the app store (which would require his customers iTunes account password)?

The “heavy” option would be to register an enterprise developer account with Apple, so you could install an in-house app on any number of devices. But that might be not easy, and it is expensive.

The only other approach I can imagine is to use a web app, but whether it is a possibility depends on what exactly he wants to test.

Cool.  If there’s no easy/cheap way then fair enough but I thought I’d ask.  A web app wouldn’t be any good really as he wants to be able to test things like multi-touch.

This is feasible but for this you may need to ask iPad Application Developersto work it properly

Add his device ID to a provisioning profile, have him install the profile on his device, and publish the .zip file somewhere for him to grab and install via the iPhone Configuration Utility.   That’s how I got pre-release copies of Predictive iDash to testers.    

The “heavy” option would be to register an enterprise developer account with Apple, so you could install an in-house app on any number of devices. But that might be not easy, and it is expensive.

The only other approach I can imagine is to use a web app, but whether it is a possibility depends on what exactly he wants to test.

Cool.  If there’s no easy/cheap way then fair enough but I thought I’d ask.  A web app wouldn’t be any good really as he wants to be able to test things like multi-touch.

This is feasible but for this you may need to ask iPad Application Developersto work it properly

Add his device ID to a provisioning profile, have him install the profile on his device, and publish the .zip file somewhere for him to grab and install via the iPhone Configuration Utility.   That’s how I got pre-release copies of Predictive iDash to testers.