We just released 17 O’Reilly books as standalone iPhone Apps (The Twitter Book looks fantastic — and as a bonus #hashtags in the text are clickable), and so I’ve been looking at various options for monitoring sales and popularity (AppViz, AppFigures, and MajicRank have proven quite useful), and was eager to find something I could use right from my iPhone.
I was happy to find MyAppSales, but because the App technically spiders the iTunesConnect site, it violates the Apple Terms of Service, you won’t find it in the App Store. But rather than just give up, the developer has gotten creative — he’ll sell you access to the source code for $15, and you can compile the App yourself to load onto your own devices:
Unfortunately due to section 3.3.7 of the SDK Agreement I will never be permitted to sell this app on the App Store unless I rip out it’s heart and usefullness. But you can purchase a license to look at the source code, compile it yourself, put it on all the devices you like. For just $15 you can do anything you like with the source, just not sell it or use in any other way commercially.
Doubtful he’s getting anywhere near the exposure as he would from the App Store, but it’s a clever workaround until and unless Apple revises their approval process.
