I'm trying to find contract work developing apps... I'm just curious how this is usually done... does the company seeking the app development usually already have an iphone developer account... so that they can publish the app... or will the developer have to also publish the app?
It depends. I encourage most would-be developers to get their own account. Most I have worked with have done it this way, but we did publish an app for someone that didn't want to go through that trouble.
Well I think when doing contract work you usually just send them the code for the game and then they publish it.
It really totally depends on the client... We've done apps both ways, some are published under our company name, and sometimes the client sets up their own account and we publish under that.
However it's done, you probably want your own dev account - purely for the ability to work anywhere on your own computer and iPhone / iPod Touch. The one app I've written for someone else was developed and tested entirely using my own account and dev license. When accepted, I'll hand over the code and they can set up a license and manage distribution.
Thanks everyone for the replies. What if you decide to publish the app using your own account... and the app isn't free... do you take a portion of the sales of the app?
It would depend on your employer, but usually paid work are published by them. I don't like to publish apps for people, cause my 'company' in the app store is actually my name.
The quick answer is yes, a big portion of at least 50%. There are few scenarios that don't involve a lot of cash up front where I would consider publishing an app on my own account without getting at least half of the sales. Why would you want to put yourself in the middle of a nice model that Apple has already put in place? Whoever is getting 51% or more of the sales should be the one publishing the app. I might be swayed to think otherwise with a specific example, but that's my current thought on the matter.
To echo what's already been said, keep your personal development account separate from client work. At most, use your personal account for development but don't touch the App Store without using a separate account your client will be selling from. I've found that most people wanting iPhone work already have an account, or are prepared to set one up for their company, so it's never a real issue.
