[ziftface]

The way that works is you pay apple an annual fee so that they will sign your applications using their key. Their devices still check that the application is signed by apple. I think you could reasonably say you have no control over that device you paid for if this is what you have to do to run your software on it.

[bzzzt]

You only pay a fee if you want to distribute. It's free to build your own code and run it on your own phone.