by Kimberly de Silva

Apple announced it’s amending the App Store guideline regarding Apple Developer accounts: businesses now need to publish their app under their own accounts. The new ruling will go into effect on April 1st, 2018. Prior regulations allowed mobile app companies helping small businesses with their app needs (like our partners) to upload all apps under one developer account.

Apple’s new rule is meant to put full ownership of the app in the business’ hands. In other words, if the app is for Pizza Palace, the developer account should also be under the name of Pizza Palace. Apple wants local businesses to have reviewed the App Store documentation and agreement themselves and take a more active role in the app publishing process.

“Core to this is the idea that, while it’s fine for small businesses and organizations to go through a middleman like the app templating services, the app providers shouldn’t be the ones ultimately publishing these apps on their clients’ behalf”, according to TechCrunch. It’s fine if a middleman helps aids them in the process though, including building the app and getting it ready for publishing.

In essence, Apple continues to raise the bar for apps, making it a little more difficult to uploads apps to their App Store.

Note: Apple will waive the $99 developer fee for all government and nonprofits (starting in the U.S.) to make this transition easier. Please see here to determine if you are qualified.

What does this mean for you?

As a Bizness Apps partner or an app reseller in general, we highly recommend updating your clients’ apps before April 1st, 2018. After this deadline, you will have to move every client’s app into a new Apple developer account if they wish to update their app.

If you or your clients are reluctant to update apps, remember that you are not just updating the app to avoid Apple’s newest ruling. You will be updating the app to our latest source code North Park. This release brings major benefits to small businesses, who will be able to see crucial customer data and personalize their marketing strategies.

As a reseller, take this opportunity to upsell your small business clients. Present them with the app onboarding walkthrough, the data dashboards, and the reviews campaigns as add-ons to their current mobile solution. Show your clients the value of these new features – while also touching on Apple’s new regulations – and they’ll instantly see the benefits of updating their app. Use this opportunity to provide your clients with better services, while also increasing your own revenue.