iOS New "Wait Time" display for iPhone Developers

[tcarcur]

I noticed this morning that Apple is now displaying a "how long will it take to review an app" thing on the iPhone Developer News & Announcements page:

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/news/

finally something that will help more less "know" how long app review will take.

 

[PhoneyDeveloper]

This is also interesting

Contact the App Review Team
If you have an urgent fix you want prioritized, or have a question for the App Review Team, send an email to appreview@apple.com

 

[simplymuzik3]

I uploaded my app yesterday, July 31, 2009, and I set the release date to August 7th. I hope my app is approved by then! This is good to know. Thanks!

 

[firewood]

If you want a 96% chance of your app being approved before your release date, shouldn't you set the date to the 14th or later?

 

[dejo]

If you want a 96% chance of your app being approved before your release date, shouldn't you set the date to the 14th or later?

Is always better to err on the side of sooner rather than later. Cuz if it is approved before the availability date, it won't show up in the App Store right away (although there is a slight delay, usually a few hours, from approval to availability). This assumes of course you want your app available as soon as possible. I understand that there may be a need to time the release in coordination with other things. But, normally, set the availability date to something optimistic and then go and reset it to the current date once it is approved.

 

[firewood]

Is always better to err on the side of sooner rather than later. Cuz if it is approved before the availability date, it won't show up in the App Store right away...

Actually, the opposite is often the better plan. If a new app gets accepted after the developer's set release date, it won't get listed on the top of the new release listings, since it will have an older release date on it than the day it appears in the store. Moving your release date forward after acceptance won't reliably fix this problem.

Best plan is to set the availability date in the far future, and on the day of acceptance, move the release date back to match the actual acceptance date.

 

[dejo]

Moving your release date forward after acceptance won't reliably fix this problem.

Doing exactly that has always worked for me, reliably.

And in case you don't get a chance to change the availability date (Apple has been known to fail to send approval emails), at least your app appears on the App Store and isn't missing.

 

[johnnyjibbs]

Beware though, if your availability date is, say 7th August and it actually passes review on the 14th, it will not show up in the 'just released' section because it's date will be reflecting the 7th August. So you could lose visibility and sales that way.

 

[simplymuzik3]

Beware though, if your availability date is, say 7th August and it actually passes review on the 14th, it will not show up in the 'just released' section because it's date will be reflecting the 7th August. So you could lose visibility and sales that way.

I set my availability to august 7th (7 days after I submitted it). So can I just go into iTunes Connect and change the date?

 

[dejo]

So can I just go into iTunes Connect and change the date?

You can... for now. Apple has started to restrict when you can change the application name (for example), so it seems conceivable that Apple possibly might also start restricting when you can change the availability date. They might not but there's always a chance.