Not really. It's called the Enterprise Program. While this is for 'enterprise', you can also use it - and Apple allows this - to distribute _outside the App Store_.
A few years ago I built a nice sms delivery system for installing an app I was working on. Text anything to our number (we had multiple numbers thru twilio based on market). App replies back with a download link. Install. It worked perfect and we could actually tell who requested the app and who installed it. We had around 75k users installing. Not millions, of course, but still, not too bad.
So, it is possible. We also did not have to wait for any approval process. And when the app started up, it checked for an updated version on our system. If there was, the app would then prompt the user to start the update. It was a very nice flow and we had many comments from users telling us that 'it just worked'.
This was app pre-iOS 7 and automatic app update, but it's still being used today.
A few years ago I built a nice sms delivery system for installing an app I was working on. Text anything to our number (we had multiple numbers thru twilio based on market). App replies back with a download link. Install. It worked perfect and we could actually tell who requested the app and who installed it. We had around 75k users installing. Not millions, of course, but still, not too bad.
So, it is possible. We also did not have to wait for any approval process. And when the app started up, it checked for an updated version on our system. If there was, the app would then prompt the user to start the update. It was a very nice flow and we had many comments from users telling us that 'it just worked'.
This was app pre-iOS 7 and automatic app update, but it's still being used today.