"I'm busy washing my hair Saturday night. Why don't we get together some other time?"
"I'm concentrating on my career -- but let's be friends."
"Thank you for your letter. We have no openings at this time but we'll keep your resume on file in case a position opens up."
Sometimes it doesn't have to come right out and say it to, well, say it. We all know a rejection letter when we see one. Planet-iPhone claims to have the insider scoop on those developer program rejections, but with all due respect and courtesy my bogus-detector is pinging softly.
Their unnamed "executive" says that 10 developers were selected. (*ping*) That's awfully specific and if true might refer to developers who presented at launch. But 10? Apple never planned to launch and pick "ten" extremely selected developers. The application form just doesn't have enough information to pick that way. 10 random guys? No. He says they were "extremely selective." (So: *ping* *ping* *ping*).
Purported Unnamed Executive also says the huge SDK response did not allow them to scale their registered developer perks to the applicant numbers and they're working on that now. No *ping*. This is reasonable and what has been called by many bloggers. If one of our tipsters is to be believed, the certificate program isn't even in place.
So did Apple accept anyone last week? TUAW remains dubious. (And so, apparently, are others.) Apple would have done better sending out "we're swamped" as the message rather than "we have an exclusive limited beta -- and you're not part of it." Foot in mouth? Certainly. Secret acceptances? Probably not.
Thanks Kevin Sullivan
Readers report that Apple has sent out a new mailing. Full text after the jump.
"In addition to the rich set of resources currently available to you in the iPhone Dev Center, we've just added new resources to power your development as you create world-class mobile applications with the iPhone SDK.
Thank you again for applying to the iPhone Developer Program. We're thrilled with the tremendous response we've received. We have many more requests than we can serve during this initial beta period, so we must limit the Program at this time. We plan to expand it during the beta period, and we will contact you regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time. We appreciate your patience. "
So does this tell us anything we didn't know? No? No? Bueller? Oh well. Thanks to everyone who sent this update in.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3-18-2008 @ 8:26AM
Bob said...
i think Apple really just rejected everyone. this week they'll pull the SDK and issue a press release that says 'Our bad.' (*ping*)
oh, wait, since the sky isn't falling, maybe we can give them a little bit of time. after all, it's not like our phones are going to evaporate before June. maybe they didn't expect 100,000+ developers to download the SDK. i mean, there aren't 100,000 developers for the Mac OS itself!
Gruber has it right, as always.
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3-21-2008 @ 9:25AM
Sydney said...
No true! I got it the second time I try it!
Here is the excepted criteria:
1. More than 3 years with xcode
2. Developed applications for RIM and other mobile platform
3. An offical website
If you did not meet one of those, you are out!
If you meet them all, not 100% you will be accepted but close to 99%. Goodluck.
3-18-2008 @ 8:29AM
Jim of D said...
TUAW: center of iPhone FUD.
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3-18-2008 @ 8:29AM
krye said...
There's no way Apple released an SDK to the masses, totalling 100,000 downloads the first day, to only accept 10 developeres into the beta program. They had close to 10 on the day they demoed it. 10? You can't get any useful real-world data back from 10 testers. Yeh, my BS-ometer is in the red too.
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3-18-2008 @ 9:13AM
len said...
Secrecy breeds confidence. Secrecy breeds certainty. Secrecy breeds trust.
Wait, no, it does the opposite. Sorry, fanboy, but speculation isn't FUD. If it makes you comfortable, blame Apple, or better yet, learn to think for yourself.
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3-18-2008 @ 9:17AM
Jimbo said...
Hasn't anybody read the Apple press release: "During the beta iPhone SDK program, a limited number of developers will be accepted into Apple’s new iPhone Developer Program and offered the ability to get code onto iPhones for testing." http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/03/06iphone.html?sr=hotnews
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3-18-2008 @ 9:39AM
Ryan Trevisol said...
So, Erica, have you applied? Have you been accepted? Hmmm? HMMMM? Inquiring minds want to know. . . .
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3-18-2008 @ 10:02AM
joem said...
re:only 10 devs-
"I'll bet those golden tickets make the chocolate taste terrible."
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3-18-2008 @ 10:04AM
Chris Pallé said...
Hey All-- I wasn't going to post anything because I really don't understand fully what happened. All I know is that I drank the iPhone SDK koolaid and downloaded the SDK over the weekened. This was AFTER i read all the reports last week. I just signed up and then was granted active links on the iPhone SDK page (which were initially greyed). I didn't receive any letters rejected or accepted.
I downloaded the free version. So, I don't know if what I got is what everyone else is referring to. All I know is I have a fully functioning xTools environment with all the iPhone videos, testing/debugging environments, demo and sample files, etc.
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3-18-2008 @ 10:16AM
Mike said...
No - what people are referring to is the ability to transfer the program they develop onto their iPhone (and ultimately up to the App Store).
The only way that can happening is by paying $99 to Apple and getting the digital certificate.
One would think Apple wouldn't care who gave them money and would only discriminate once people started uploading crappy programs to the App Store (although, I'm assuming all programs will enter into some holding area first where they are tested to make sure they meet the basic standards Apple has outlined).
3-18-2008 @ 10:16AM
Dave said...
That's because you have no idea what's going on. At all. ThxNowPlzGoByeOK
J/k but seriously. You don't.
3-18-2008 @ 10:21AM
Kevin said...
Obviously did not take the extra step of filling out the required forms to get your signing certificate and pay Apple the $99. If you did you would have gotten the rejection letter than 999,990 people out of that 100,000+ got.
All you did was download the SDK. Everyone's got that. We want the certificate so that we can test run our apps on the iPhone itself. You can't do OpenGL or location based stuff from the Aspen Simulator.
3-18-2008 @ 10:35AM
Daniel Vargas said...
Apple is a greedy phuck!!! They knew they were going to make a killing selling the SDK and they also knew that they were only going to accept only 10 apps which they probably already had on the backburner... Check it out "For Profit",,, it means: Phuck u, pay me!!!
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3-18-2008 @ 10:43AM
Steve said...
Everyone. Seriously, chill.
I'm as anxious as everyone else to get my code running on an iPhone, but come on. The SDK is a beta program; they explicitly said that they'd be limiting who got certs out of the gate. It's been out less than two weeks.
If Apple wanted to lock out their platform to their high-and-mighty partner companies, they would have. But they aren't. You'll be able to get a certificate once their system is in place.
If I had to guess (and this is just a guess, I don't have any insider info or anything), the Apple engineers in charge of building the management system for these certificates were rushed to finish it, and it just wasn't ready in time for 3/6.
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3-18-2008 @ 12:08PM
Big John said...
B-b-b-but the 2.0 firmware comes out in June! That's like, TOMORROW!
Steve, I appreciate your sanity but it's going to get drowned out by the incredibly vocal, confusingly irritated minority.
3-18-2008 @ 12:24PM
Steve said...
I know, but someone had to say it. :)
I think the better course of action right now is to suck it up and wait. It's not like there is an epic list of 500 companies who have access to the SDK. The little guy isn't really getting screwed here.
Furthermore, look at what Apple has given us. I mean, ffs, we have a nearly full iPhone simulator that runs on your computer. The fact that we can build apps at all is pretty phenomenal.
Take what you can get now. The certs ARE coming for everyone.
3-18-2008 @ 10:49AM
Gridman said...
It seems to me that, since the simulator isn't exactly running the production release of the iPhone firmware, that anyone gaining access to the live iPhone testing environment seems likely to require having access to an advanced (NDA-covered, no doubt) firmware update from Apple.
It's hardly any doubt that they'd at least want to pair down their initial developers to a small group, probably people already participating in trusted development positions.
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3-18-2008 @ 10:58AM
Chris Pallé said...
Thanks for the clarification
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3-18-2008 @ 11:11AM
BryanF said...
What I want to know (and can't quite seem to find a clear answer on) is if I could jailbreak an iPhone or touch and use that to test things I've written with the beta SDK. I'm already running into limitations as to what can be done with the incomplete software on the simulator, not to mention some of the features (like location) that you can't really test at all. And how long do I have to wait to do that? Weeks? Months?
If someone could come up with a step-by-step process to do this, I think a lot of developers would jump on that while waiting for Apple to get its act together on the SDK beta.
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3-18-2008 @ 11:32AM
alex said...
I got an invitation. If someone is interested in whats to come, you can contact me:
http://hacktheiphoneitouch.blogspot.com/
I f someone want to interview me im ok with that aswell.
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