14 DAY TRIAL // Using the News and Announcements section for iPhone devs, Apple has confirmed that developers can provide users of an application with an easy way to access other apps directly from their website or marketing campaigns. Devs can create an iTunes link and have customers check out a single app, or their portfolio’s entire collection of apps.
“Drive Customers Directly to Your App on the App Store with iTunes Links,” sounds Apple’s latest update to the iPhone Dev Center’s “News and Announcements” section for iPhone devs. “With iTunes links you can provide your customers with an easy way to access your apps on the App Store directly from your website or marketing campaigns,” Apple reveals to those working with its Software Development Kit.
“Creating an iTunes link is simple and can be made to direct customers to either a single app, all your apps, or to a specific app with your company name specified,” the Mac maker continues to explain. Apple also offers some instructions on how to build their links.
To send customers to a specific application: http://itunes.com/apps/appname. To send customers to a list of apps you have on the App Store: http://itunes.com/apps/developername. To send customers to a specific app with your company name included in the URL: http://itunes.com/apps/developername/appname.
Apple also informs developers that, elsewhere on its website, additional instructions for creating easy-to-read links to the App Store for their applications and company can be found. “Be sure to test your URLs before using them in any marketing or other public materials. If there are naming conflicts, continue using the standard itunes.apple.com URLs, which contain a unique numerical identifier within the URL,” Apple says.
A few days back, Apple used the iPhone Dev Center news section to announce the addition of new App Status Indicators to help track binaries submitted in iTunes Connect. These new statuses allegedly give developers a more precise indication of the state of their app when using Application Loader to submit their binary.