Time Travel: 2014

Although it can also be distributed using a personal developer account.

But there are too many restrictions when distributing with personal developer accounts.

Individual developers can distribute up to 100 devices per year.

With Lin Hui’s speed of developing software.

The 100-unit distribution qualification can only be said to be very insufficient.

In short, although it is difficult to find internal testers for the time being.

But Lin Hui still decided to upload the software to textflight.

Once we find suitable internal testers, we will open up the internal testing qualifications and that’s it.

Originally this was just a simple task.

But Lin Hui hit a wall.

There is no textflight in this time and space!

Uh, no, you can’t say that there is no textflight in this time and space.

However, textflight in this time and space only focuses on Android application distribution.

Lin Hui remembers that in his previous life, TestFlight was mainly engaged in Android application distribution.

But in fact, it also takes into account the business of distributing Apple's internal beta applications.

In the previous life, TestFlight stopped its Android application distribution business only after being acquired by Apple.

After that, TestFlight switched to specializing in distributing Apple internal test applications.

In its previous life, TestFlight was a very powerful testing software distribution tool.

Software developers can use the TestFlight application to distribute applications for testing to up to 10,000 testers.

Developers only need to upload the beta version of the software and use iTunes to add the tester's name and email address to easily complete the distribution task.

In its previous life, TestFlight was able to take into account many different Apple platforms when distributing.

Testers can download and use the TestFlight app for iOS, watchOS and tvOS and provide feedback to developers.

Such a powerful software, in this time and space, actually simply stopped distributing Apple mobile applications?

Lin Hui was already used to the trivial differences between the two time and space.

If there is a difference between the TestFlight of this time and space and the original time and space.

Then TestFlight in this time and space must not have been acquired by Apple.

In this case, Lin Hui will be able to produce TestFlight, which was distributed by Apple in his previous life.

The more Lin Hui thought about it, the more feasible it became.

I even thought about what the corresponding name will be after TestFlight is forged:

——Dandelion (dandelion)

Isn't this name much more beautiful than TestFlight (test machine)?

The reason why Lin Hui is so optimistic and thinks it has great feasibility is not because of blind arrogance.

Although Lin Hui is not good at anything related to software distribution technology.

But Lin Hui has the ability to make money.

Lin Hui couldn't do it alone, but when the time comes Lin Hui can arrange for others to do it.

What's more, when it comes to replicating, Lin Hui has advantages that others don't have.

Lin Hui knew the operating mechanism of the TestFlight application in his previous life.

Lin Hui still has a rough idea of ​​the principles involved in the TestFlight application.

While this process may cost a little money, it’s not a big deal.

Lin Hui could afford a small expense.

Compared to the possible returns, let alone hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Even if you spend $1.8 million, the future returns will most likely be worth it.

After all, the TestFlight application was acquired by Apple in the previous life.

Although Lin Hui is not sure how much money Apple spent on this application in his previous life.

But since this was a public acquisition by Apple in the previous life, it is almost certain that the starting price of the acquisition was more than 20 million US dollars.

If it really only takes less than 10 million US dollars to complete the acquisition.

Apple generally does not disclose acquisition information to the outside world at all.

It's not a mystery, it's true. After all, Apple is a listed company.

Listed companies sometimes have to pay special attention to reputation when doing things.

If you want to acquire an application or technology worth millions of dollars.

Once word spreads, Apple has to buy even a technology worth less than 10 million US dollars, and it is impossible to handle it on its own.

This is very detrimental to the company's reputation (...although it doesn't have a good reputation)

When it comes to the application TestFlight.

If it is really completed in the future, it will be sold to Apple.

Just $20 million seems a bit low.

The recent frequency reduction scandal reminded Lin Hui of some past events in his past life.

It is rumored that Apple paid more than 90 million US dollars in legal fees for the previous Apple downclocking incident.

It's not even interesting enough to file a lawsuit, it's simply too violent.

It would be unjustifiable for such a wealthy enterprise not to ruthlessly exploit it.

And even if it is sold, Lin Hui does not plan to sell it directly if he actually builds the Dandelion app.

It seems unreasonable that such an invincible test software distribution application should not be used to harvest a wave of potential users [emoji].

But these are things for the future.

TestFlight in this time and space cannot distribute test software on Apple mobile phones.

It's not all good news for Lin Hui.

In this case, if Lin Hui wants to continue to conduct internal testing of the workflow, the test software distribution process can only be distributed through personal developer accounts.

However, the distribution quota for individual developer accounts is too small.

There are only 100 distribution quotas per year.

What are one hundred places enough for?

You can barely carry out a small-scale internal test distribution and use up the quota. What should you do next?

...In fact, in the past life, besides TF signatures, there were many other signatures that could be distributed.

But the rest of the signatures are generally unstable.

Due to the inertia of thinking, even if time and space were changed, these possible pheasant signatures would not be considered by Lin Hui.

When TF distribution is unavailable, it seems that if you do not use a personal developer account for software distribution, you can only distribute it through corporate signature.

The corporate signature must require a corporate development account.

Although Lin Hui has been cooperating with Apple for such a long time, it may be easy to apply for a corporate development account in the future.

But some hard requirements still need to be met.

The applicant for an enterprise development account must be an enterprise, and it must be an enterprise with more than 500 employees.

But Lin Hui has nowhere to start a business with hundreds of people now.

The so-called enterprise with more than 500 employees is only one of the theoretical conditions.

In fact, let alone companies with more than 500 employees.

Many companies with more than a thousand employees may not be able to get a corporate development account on the Apple App Store.

It is precisely because the application for an enterprise development account often requires a bunch of messy conditions.

As a result, existing enterprise development accounts are generally very precious.

If we must measure it by value, the value of accounts developed by many companies is basically tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan.

A few hundred thousand yuan is not a big problem for Lin Hui now.

But the problem is that this thing is largely priceless.

Very few businesses choose to sell food, unless they can no longer open.

But having said that, it really is the kind of enterprise development account that can’t open a business soon.

Apple may cancel the corresponding enterprise development account at any time.

It is too risky to buy such an account.