My company is developing our first iPhone app for one of our clients, so this begins our journey into the confusing land of iPhone app development, enrollments and approval processes.

Challenge 1 – As an agency / 3rd party developer, how should I enroll?

OK.  I called Apple (Steve Jobs was in a meeting, so I just talked to Jonathan Ive).  I learned this…

Whoever enrolls as the iPhone Developer, their company name shows on the store as “Seller Name”.  Not a big deal, since it’s somewhat hidden on the iTunes store, and not visible at all on the iPhone app store.   HOWEVER, the catch is that each iPhone Developer only gets ONE Artist Name (the name at the top of the product pages (see diagram below).  So if we chose Client FOO as our artist name, but then wanted to create a new iPhone app for Client BAR, we’d have to sell it under the FOO artist name. Plus it would be our bank account tied to the app, not FOO’s.

Therefore, what Apple recommends (and I’m agreeing with them), we need to have Client FOO enroll as an iPhone Developer under “Standard Company” ($99/yr), and then have them add us as a developer.

The enrollment process looks pretty hairy, so it might be easier if we have Client FOO set up an email address that points to us, and we manage the enrollment, reaching out to them only when we need documents.

We’ll need one of the following from them:
Articles of incorporation
Business license
Certificate of Formation
DBA (Doing Business As…)
Fictitious name statement
Registration of trademark
Charter documents
Partnership papers
Reseller or vendor license

And their bank account information (probably acct no and routing no)