Filed under: Developer, iPhone
iPhone developer rejection letter mass mailing
If you've applied for Apple's iPhone Developer program, check email for your rejection letter. The twitterati are reporting widespread disappointment and anger as thousands of iPhone developer hopefuls have received a "Thank you but no thank you" message in their inbox. The emails are arriving with the subject of iPhone Developer Program Enrollment Status.
Did you get accepted? Do you know anyone who did? Let us know in the comments. Some readers are reporting acceptance -- if you've been accepted please send us some more details -- but they appear to be confusing the iPhone online developer SDK download with the "iPhone developer program," which you can learn more about at Apple's site. What we are talking about here is the $99 signup for the developer program, which includes a signing certificate to allow applications to run on physical iPhones and not just in the Aspen simulator. Just because you have downloaded the Xcode SDK components does not make you an iPhone dev Jedi -- if you haven't paid your $99, or you haven't been invited to pay it, you have no lightsaber.
Corporations have been rejected and so have individuals. Premiere members, Select members, Online members, all rejected. To be clear, these rejections are not for the general iPhone SDK download program but for the paid $99 developer/AppStore access program. I have not been able to confirm any acceptances into this latter program.
Out of country developers are reporting slightly different rejections. One anonymous developer received this message: "At this time, the iPhone Developer Program is only available in the US, and will expand to other countries during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time."
An absolutely LOL moment from Daniel Jalkut, which I quote in full: "In other news, it looks like the Jailbreak Developer Program still has open slots, and people are getting approved as I type."
TUAW reader UO perfectly summarizes the dilemma: "I got a rejection this morning too. What if I never get accepted? Spending that much time (until June?) working on code I may never be able to ship is an unacceptable risk right now."
Dear Registered iPhone Developer, Thank you for expressing interest in the iPhone Developer Program. We have received your enrollment request. As this time, the iPhone Developer Program is available to a limited number of developers and we plan to expand during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time. Thank you for applying. Best regards, iPhone Developer Program
And just one more reminder: this is less about 'rejection' than it is about developers being unable to commit resources when Apple won't give a firm go-ahead. Feel free to think about it as a "limbogram" rather than an outright rejection.
Unconfirmed insider reports are trickling in. One blue & green anonymous tipster tells us that Apple has yet to set up its certificate management system and cannot issue developer certs until this is finished and put in place. While this doesn't explain why Apple sent out its letters worded the way they were, it might explain why TUAW cannot find a single developer who has documentedly been accepted into the system.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
kie said 12:29PM on 3-14-2008
first! yay!
Reply
ars_workerbee said 12:50PM on 3-14-2008
fail.
neckarb said 12:29PM on 3-14-2008
Accepted!
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GameMasta0 said 12:47PM on 3-14-2008
What exactly does it say if your accepted? I can't tell if mine is just a nice way of saying no without saying no, or if it is a maybe or something... That being said it might be nice to see an exampleof rejection too... if possible.
Timstarockz said 8:58PM on 3-14-2008
what di your email say
Skylar said 12:31PM on 3-14-2008
I wonder why?
I haven't gotten rejected yet, so my fingers are crossed.
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John from Buffalo said 12:35PM on 3-14-2008
Accepted! Maybe it's because I turned off the phone home port to Apple on iPhone updates.
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jus10 said 12:53PM on 3-14-2008
How do you do that?
And on the general topic: to people who have gotten rejection letters: is there a reason why?
To me it would seem that anyone who wants to cough up $100 for the cert should have the ability to get a cert. If it limited for now and then expanded later I'm good with that.
Stuart Crook said 1:48PM on 3-14-2008
John, can we ask a little about your development history, whether you applied as a company or an individual? Just to see if there's any pattern to the acceptances / rejections or whether they're purely random / done on some kind of first come, first served basis.
Drunknbass said 12:32PM on 3-14-2008
heres my offical reply "ƒüçk ¥øü åpplé"
i signed up like 5 min after the site opened that morning, i should have been very close to the top of that list. seems like apple played a big joke on us and gave us an sdk that is pretty much useless. they act like the platform is open for development but it really isnt.
Joke is on all the devs, well maybe not if you are EA or Sega, way to go apple.. you use to be the under dog and support the fight against a monopoly like microsoft, now you are even worse.
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defined said 12:41PM on 3-14-2008
seems like drinking while programming is a bad idea..
ars_workerbee said 12:51PM on 3-14-2008
"ƒüçk ¥øü åpplé"
do you email your mother with that keyboard?
:-p
Drunknbass said 12:56PM on 3-14-2008
yea my apple keyboard.... i should go return it and by a microsoft one instead :O
Joe said 1:30PM on 3-14-2008
Maybe they sensed your code was as mature as you were.
JustMat said 2:44PM on 3-14-2008
I think he looks at pitures of his mother with that keyboard.
Jakob said 11:38AM on 3-16-2008
Haha cool you use Scandinavian (Danish) letters.
æøå :D You must have been very "fückéd"
James said 12:33PM on 3-14-2008
I hope that "thousands" is an exaggeration.
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Dave Wood said 12:32PM on 3-14-2008
Rejected! Arrrgg.....
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MoonMan said 11:40AM on 3-15-2008
@Drunknbass
It was also a maturity test, which you failed as well.
Blake said 1:37PM on 3-14-2008
I just bought a $599 Mac Mini so I could develop iPhone apps and I got rejected. If Apple doesn't let me in I will have bought a $599 piece of crap and it will be the first and last Apple product I will ever buy.
Reply