Mass downloading IPA files from App Store using ipatool.
Use command ipatool search "QUERY" --format json | jq for searching required application by QUERY keywords.
jq application is used here only for formatting purpose. Now, when you known app's bundle ID you can add it to a text file.
Form a files with list of bundles you want to download. See example.txt. Each line consists of bundle id and search term.
A bundle id is a sort of namespace of an app. As current version (2.1.*) of ipatool does not allow reading information
about app by bundle, we need to use search term for finding recent app version for detecting if we need to download an update of an app.
Applications are downloaded to the current directory and then moved to subdirectories with names made of search terms. To mass download apps using list of apps do this:
cat example.txt | ipatool-mass.sh
Of course, you need to place ipatool-mass.sh to one of your $PATH directories.
After processing list of bundles, script searches for multiple versions available for applications and automatically removes
old ones. Set protection to old versions you want to keep (using uchg flag, see man chflags).
All downloaded IPA files are signed by Apple and your Apple ID. You can install them to others people phones/pads, but on the first run you will need to enter your Apple ID credentials. And do not forget to log out then in App Store!
You can send file to your phone/pad using AirDrop or any other way and then just open it. System then will ask you if you would like to install application.