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iOS What gets you (mentally) through the App review process?

U

unforgiven3

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 6, 2009
6
0
Central New York
I'm a long time reader of MacRumors and it's forums, but only a recent member. I've recently submitted my first app to be reviewed for the App Store. Well, 12 days ago. As I expected from reading the numerous horror stories about the App Store review process, I'm stuck in the Apple Black Hole. What is the longest any of you ever spent in it? What got you through it, mentally?

It's maddening. Absolutely maddening. I'm really wondering if I should bother continuing to develop my app, even if it gets approved. What's the point? Apple clearly isn't budging on their anti-developer stance. Eh, I don't know. Sorry for the rant. It's just such a frustrating process - it makes me want to stick to writing software for Windows (gasp!).
 
Start a new project as soon as you submit the last one.

I usually have more project ideas in the research phase than I possibly have time to finish. Submitting an app just pushes one off the list, and then I'm busy enough with another one that I can forget about the submission(s) until it's time to upload and/or send out the marketing collateral. (This was easier when Apple was sending out acceptance emails. Now, one seems to have to poll the App store periodically to see if/when your app appears.)

I had one app that was rejected after about 2 months "in review"... but most of my acceptances have taken somewhere around 1 week lately.
 
Wow, so I guess the situation really is this bleak. Pretty depressing, if you ask me.

Windows Mobile and/or Android are starting to look a lot more attractive.
 
Currently the avg waiting time for new apps is around 10-12 days and for updates 5-7. If you go past 2 weeks without hearing from them then something fishy is going on and it is time to call or email them.

My suggestion is to follow the official dev forums and iphonedevsdk forums closely to get an idea why apps get rejected and learn from others mistakes.

Good luck and let me know when your app is out and ill buy a copy :)
 
Check out www.MyNewber.com for an interesting app that has been waiting 200+ days. They have a ticker in the corner, and a petition asking Apple what's the deal with the delay. Their app could be used to minimize AT&T minutes... but so could Skype, and that got approved (at least over WiFi).

My experience... 100sounds was submitted around thanksgiving and went live December 12th... about three weeks. Work on your web site, other apps, etc. in the meantime.
 
My one app was in review for about a month before I got the first rejection email. After fixing the issue and resubmitting I got another rejection in about 3 days (for a b.s. reason). After fixing that it was approved about a week later, but I never got an approval email, someone emailed me letting me know they saw the app was available. My last 2 new submissions as well as my last app update I never got the "Ready For Sale" emails. So if I submit something I'll check iTunes Connect twice a day now, just to see if it moved along in the process. Other apps and updates usually have a 3-10 day turnaround. That one was the exception for me.

Well...except for a TiVo remote app I was working on. I submitted it before there were any in the App Store. After 3 weeks I got a rejection. Fixed it, found another reason for rejection about 5 days later. After about 3 months of various nonsense rejections I just gave up. At that point there were already 2 other TiVo remote applications available for sale.
 
unforgiven3 said:
Wow, so I guess the situation really is this bleak. Pretty depressing, if you ask me.

Windows Mobile and/or Android are starting to look a lot more attractive.
Click to expand...

Until you consider the policies each of these markets has. Currently on the Android marketplace if a customer buys one of your applications and uninstalls it within 24 hours they get a full refund no questions asked, hence its VERY difficult to make money as it leaves developers wide open to being screwed over. The new Microsoft marketplace is supposedly going to offer the same policy to the customer also.
 
mccannmarc said:
Until you consider the policies each of these markets has. Currently on the Android marketplace if a customer buys one of your applications and uninstalls it within 24 hours they get a full refund no questions asked, hence its VERY difficult to make money as it leaves developers wide open to being screwed over. The new Microsoft marketplace is supposedly going to offer the same policy to the customer also.
Click to expand...

Thats why Apple has to review everything to make sure there is no bugs,problems with your app. So they can claim "All Sales are Final" to the credit company's.
 
unforgiven3 said:
Wow, so I guess the situation really is this bleak. Pretty depressing, if you ask me.
Click to expand...

You've got to be kidding!

If you were designing furniture, it might take months to get your samples shipped back from overseas. Same with the chips/ASICs inside your iPod. If you were designing automobiles, it might take 3 or 4 years to get a concept car into production. The engineers designing that new jumbo jet started nearly a decade ago, and it's still not in the air.

App approval is instant and wonderful by comparison.
 
Well, I suppose I spoke a bit too soon. Apple approved my application late last night (east coast US time late, that is). It is now for sale on the App Store, and I'm pretty excited about it. It's called "Whiteboards Can't Jump" (website: http://www.chordfusion.com).

You've got to be kidding!

If you were designing furniture, it might take months to get your samples shipped back from overseas. Same with the chips/ASICs inside your iPod. If you were designing automobiles, it might take 3 or 4 years to get a concept car into production. The engineers designing that new jumbo jet started nearly a decade ago, and it's still not in the air.

App approval is instant and wonderful by comparison.
Click to expand...

I probably should have elaborated on my "the situation is that bleak" comment - at the time, I was more referring to how poor Apple's communication is with developers from the time an app is submitted until it's approved or rejected. The "App Store Black Hole" is what I meant was depressing, and unfortunately, in my haste to write that post, I didn't convey that information.

Is it lame that I'm suddenly happy? I still feel the process could be orders of magnitude more transparent, however, I'm pretty happy to be approved. I suppose my complaining was a bit premature, compared to what others have went through. Call it the first-time-app-store-submit jitters ;-)
 
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