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iOS app "requiring unexpected additional time for review"

F

firewood

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jul 29, 2003
8,144
1,390
Silicon Valley
How many developers have received an email regarding their app submission saying this?

Has anyone had an app accepted after getting this email?

More to the point, has anyone had an app rejected after getting this email? Or is this their new way of doing a "virtual rejection" of an app by infinite delay, thus incurring less bad press or something?

At least with an outright and prompt rejection, with an explanation of the reason for the rejection, a developer can try to fix the problem ASAP, if possible.


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I've gotten two of these emails about a week after submission. The earlier one submitted Sept 16. And it was the last I heard from apple regarding these apps. I sent an email asking why, but no response. My speculation is that it has something to do with legal issues, or what you said about virtual rejection...Don't know. I'm curious also.
 
This is the first time that I have heard about this. I would be surprised if Apple actually went along the "virtual rejection" path, it is just purely unprofessional, and I just can't see them doing that. But at the same time it is surprising, as Apple has already had an overly-long review period, and unless if it were over two weeks from the submission date, then I don't see why they would send this email.
 
I'll make two wild and unsubstantiated guesses.

1) They're prioritizing the app review queue (apps they want in the store because marketing thinks it will sell more iPhone's, or bring more customers to iTunes, go to the front, everything else goes to the back), not using submission order. Since the review queue is growing much faster than the rate at which they can review apps, anything put at the back will simply never get reviewed.

2) They've got secret reasons for rejecting an app (rules under a higher level of NDA, rules that are about to change, rules that they can't decide how to interpret themselves, contract negotiations with AT&T, app is too hard to properly review compared to others, they're bored reviewing yet another app in some non-innovative category, unwritten rules, stuff that Steve doesn't like, etc.), so they infinitely delay the review.

Guess #1 means that developers need to spend a lot more time trying to outguess Apple's marketing about how to make the iPhone a success. Guess #2 leaves developers playing roulette (with variable and unknown odds).

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You mentioned Apple's marketing, putting apps up that they think will look better. This isn't directly related, but I always wondered why the app store (and lots of other online stores) are rigged, e.i. hand picked top apps and such. The things that are naturally most popular should be the best marketing items, right? :confused:
 
liptonlover said:
You mentioned Apple's marketing, putting apps up that they think will look better. This isn't directly related, but I always wondered why the app store (and lots of other online stores) are rigged, e.i. hand picked top apps and such.
Click to expand...

Because "rigging" product location is good business.

All (successful) stores position merchandise based on either store attractiveness, profits, or promotions. Either statistics says that this position on this shelf brings the most customers into the store, maximizes purchase revenue, or the manufacturer has paid for a promotion. That's why certain high profit impulse items are usually in the front or high traffic areas, and other stuff is on the top shelf in the back. It's pretty much standard practice.

It's actually quite weird to position merchandise based on some random date (submission, update, etc.) If it was Walmart, to get in the store at all developers would have to send their marketing team across the country to make a 10 minute sales presentation about why their product deserves some shelf space more that thousands of other potential products.


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fixie rider said:
Not really because some customers want to see what is newly available.
Click to expand...

Some customers, but not enough. The largest supermarket nearby has the freshest produce way off to the side, while the same old candy and promotional items are near the cash registers in front.
 
additional time

I just go this email today? Will my app ever hit the store? or even get denied? What stage are your apps since this email?
 
Also received this weird email few hours ago. How long it should take now ?

Firewood - is your app in the store already ?
 
I've had one reply (denied) and still waiting to hear back on another (been 2-3 months). I don't think there is any regular timeline. The app that got denied was, in Apple's opinion, a violation of the SDK. If you can anticipate why you received this email, I would recommend just changing anything questionable and resubmitting. Good luck.
 
I rejected and then resubmitted one app over a month ago. It's still "In Review". Since then, I've had another new app accepted in less than 48 hours.

YMMV.
 
It is the first time I hear about this. Can you guys comment on what kind of apps you were submitting, and why you think Apple is taking more time to review them? (legal issues?)
 
There appear to be one or two reports of apps that got accepted after "additional time for review", and a couple reports of rejections. However, there's been very little news about the vast majority of apps reportedly stuck in this queue.

I'm randomly guessing that the odds are well over 50% that an app in this situation won't get any review for at least 2 or 3 months.

So I just tabled the stuck app, and moved on to other projects. My new and different apps were accepted just 2 days after submission.

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katte said:
One of my apps got this "unexpected additional time for review" email and was subsequently rejected. The app is a smoking simulator - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnpGBWlKmYI
Click to expand...

Although your app looks very cool, and would probably do well on the App Store, I can understand why Apple rejected it. You could have guessed that before one line of code was written.

What I don't understand is why yours gets rejected yet the beer drinking ones don't.

Ethan
 
firewood said:
There appear to be one or two reports of apps that got accepted after "additional time for review", and a couple reports of rejections. However, there's been very little news about the vast majority of apps reportedly stuck in this queue.

I'm randomly guessing that the odds are well over 50% that an app in this situation won't get any review for at least 2 or 3 months.

So I just tabled the stuck app, and moved on to other projects. My new and different apps were accepted just 2 days after submission.

.
Click to expand...

I have been in the same situation. I have an app that has been in the "additional time" category for about 6 weeks now and I moved on to new and better projects right away. No point in sitting there waiting.

E
 
Anyone had any luck on this?

I submitted my second app on Monday and low and behold today I received the dreaded "Your app is requiring unexpected additional for review..." message.

I guess that means my app is now stuck in limbo for time immemorial. :(

My app is actually in essence a container for my music, consisting of a simple audio player that plays the included 3 tracks (of my own music, so no copyright issues), an option to save the tracks to your computer via WIFI and a Facebook setting that allows the user to post about it on their Facebook profile. There is no network streaming in the app as the files are stored locally.

I can see that there may not be any similar 'music EP' apps on the store but I fail to see how it is any different from the millions of 'fart sound' apps or those apps that display buttons that make noises when you push them. Essentially, each of my 'noises' is an audio track of my own making.

I also fail to see how it is in any way in competition with iTunes. My music is not available on iTunes, nor can I afford to set up a record label to put it there. My app actually adds value by being a self-contained music player for the tracks with an export option so that you can download it to your computer and iPods, etc. In essense most of those other 'sound effect' apps are basically the same thing anyway.

Maybe, my reviewer is just seeking a second opinion. But I'd be interested to see the outcome of other people's apps on this thread and any suggestions about what I should do from here.

Many thanks.
 
The following is just a wild guess caused by waking up from a bad dream...

but your app probably didn't fit the checklist on some first line reviewer's desk. So it got bumped to second line advanced review, or, even higher, to the policy review committee.

The policy review committee could be deciding whether to allow selling music which is pretending to be (or wrapped up in the form of) an app is good for the iTunes store and App store. They might need to spend weeks debating this topic before they figure out where to draw the lines for the next revision of the first line reviewer's checklist. Good Luck.

or maybe I just ate something before bedtime that upset my stomach...
 
firewood said:
The following is just a wild guess caused by waking up from a bad dream...
Click to expand...
Oh dear. So the prospects aren't good. Guess I'll have to move on to other apps... :eek:

I'll give it a week or two and then send an email asking for clarification. Hopefully at some point there won't be a 'bot on the other end. :eek:
 
Well, a week later (and 8 days after initial submission), my music app has been rejected (see my post 3 posts above this one) on the grounds that exporting media files to the computer via a method other than iTunes would be confusing to the user.

So basically, my app would get approved if I take out the export functionality but then people will be confined to listening to my music on the app itself only!! I could set up some website with a password mechanism for downloading the music to a computer but that's pointless because the code will be found out and then anyone will be able to download my music for free... There's personally emailing people but then that requires manual intervention... what to do what to do..?

:(
 
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