14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has updated the application sales agreements with developers enabling them to distribute a bulk of 20 applications to education institutions at a discount.
“We're pleased to announce the App Store Volume Purchase Program,” reads the latest update in the News and Announcements section of the iPhone Dev Center.
Schools that buy up iOS devices for studying purposes are specifically targeted by the change.
“Education institutions in the United States now have a new way to purchase your apps in volume for distribution to their students and faculty."
"You can also elect to offer special education pricing on your app when purchased in volume,” the Cupertino, California based electronics maker explains.
Developers interested in learning more about the App Store Volume Purchase Program are encouraged to visit this address.
As usual, the first step is to access iTunes Connect, the suite of web-based tools that allows programmers to submit and manage their applications for distribution on the iTunes App Store.
There, developers can get started on promoting apps in volume for distribution to education facilities.
The news is certainly not surprising, with several schools and universities adopting iPads for educational purposes.
The latest such move comes from The Stanford School of Medicine, which recently announced plans to distribute iPads to its incoming class of first-year medical school and master’s of medicine students during their orientation period.
According to the announcement, the tablets will be handed to 91 students this month as part of a trial program to integrate Apple’s iPad into academics.
Apple has also added three new status indicators to iTunes Connect recently. These give developers a more precise indication of the state of their app when submitting a binary for approval, Apple said. The new indicators are “prepare for upload”, “pending developer release”, and “processing for App Store”.