Updating Apps using Apple Configurator

I tried this today. I updated the apps in itunes and re-imported the updated apps into the configurator. It asked if I wanted to replace the old version of the app with the new one and I said yes. The next time I plugged in the iPads the profile installed the updated version of the app.

Apple really needs to have a way to push out app updates for purchased apps wirelessly or allow any apple ID to update those specific apps (apps bound to devices). At least in the environment I am working on iPads with, it is completely out of the question to go out and collect devices from each user to and update each one manually. Has anyone found any solutions to this issue or any workarounds?

http://krypted.com/iphone/managing-ios-devices-with-apple-configurator/

Read the above article. Everyone is looking for the holy grail: OTA app deployment and updating. If you cannot update manually you might want to look at giving your users more control over the devices with an Apple ID and use lion profile manager, a commercial MDMA, or try the free cloud based MDM at http://www.meraki.com/ to manage the devices.

@tmbethea, Once I re-imported the apps it installed them automatically.

tmbethea, I'm in a similar boat but have found workarounds using a combination of Apple Configurator to deploy a base then using a commercial MDM to manage devices remotely for about 200 ipads spread throughout the US. I'm using two different MDMs at the moment and can confidently answer most of your questions about either AirWatch or Good (hardly an MDM but has some MDM features).

I have a similar discussion going on here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4111203?answerId=18942350022#18942350022

Has anyone found a way to install the Apps using Configuration and have the user update them using their Apple ID? There must be some way to do this for enterprise deployments where the user keeps the device but needs it preloaded with apps.

What we've started doing is create a generic iTunes account for my company and use that ID to download the Apps into the configurator. At least this way we can share out this generic password and let users update apps themselves. The first batch I did was tied to my own iTunes account and that was a mess. It's unfortunate that once the user is signed into the App Store on the device they still can't update FREE apps installed by Apple Config.

The solution we have, is to use a generic iTunes account on the apple configurator to install the apps, this account has no credit card details attached to it. When the iPad is out in the field we've asked the users to sign-in with their own Apple ID's and i have provided them with the password details to our gneric apple id.

So far, when they update apps on the iPad - apps purchased with their own ID is updated without issue - the pre-loaded apple configurator apps prompt for the password I've given them.

Barring users attempting to change the generic password, its working so far so good...