Filed under: Developer, App Store
Interviews suggest iPhone developer experience not too bad so far
Dave Taylor wrote in to tell us about several interviews he's done with iPhone developers, and many have had less frustrating experiences than Mike Ash and Fraser Speirs.
Of 11 people he surveyed for his blog, I would judge that five had a positive experience submitting their app to the App Store, four were neutral, and two had a negative experience. The SDK received similar reviews, with six developers regarding it favorably, four were neutral, and one developer regarding it unfavorably.
Two of the developers with positive experiences said they submitted their app before the App Store was launched, and it was approved for distribution in about a week. The two developers with negative experiences submitting their app said that the most frustrating parts were waiting and the lack of communication.
The positive, neutral, and negative ratings were not a part of his interview, but were indicative of the general tone that I could determine reading the interviews. They are subjective on my part, and opinions, of course, may vary.
The interviews are interesting reading if you're considering developing an iPhone app.
Thanks, Dave!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
bebopredux said 10:51AM on 9-21-2008
Looks very much like the spawn of Woz to me.
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Murphy Mac said 11:46AM on 9-21-2008
He really knows his stuff though. I just don't understand why someone like Dave Taylor would promote the likes of Joel Comm, the Ronco of the Internet.
Stephen said 2:38PM on 9-21-2008
Wow, out of the thousands of apps in the store and many more not approved, you are basing this "story" on 11 people surveyed?
Not even close to a good "sample" to base on if you ask me
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(01) said 8:31PM on 9-21-2008
Totally; I find most sample sizes too small anyway, but this is absurd. I'd imagine most devs have an overall good experience, but that's just my feeling, not based on tiny numbers.
Katie said 4:51PM on 9-21-2008
Wow - he really makes himself out to be a cool-looking guy on his site. Talk about artistic license.
http://askdavetaylor.com/
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Mike Piontek said 11:17PM on 9-21-2008
My experience has been pretty good so far, but I think Apple could do much better. The SDK itself is excellent, and the documentation they have is very helpful for the most part. There were some things I really got stuck on though, and because of the NDA it was a big challenge to find the help I needed. In some cases I just had to bang my head against the wall until I worked through it.
But with a few things I owe a LOT to the few developers who've been willing to break the NDA and post helpful information online (like furbo.org). It's a real shame that Apple is telling us we can't even help each other make better apps. It's more insulting now that they've introduced a student program--now students can discuss things but professionals still can't. If Apple has good reasons for their NDA, that's fine--but they could easily set up a forum that only developers can access, or something of the sort.
They desperately need a search function for their developer site too--since it's all closed off, Google is no help. On a couple occasions I spent a long time working through a problem just because I couldn't find the right info on their site. One time I had to redo a lot of work after finally finding the proper way to do it.
Their app rejections are becoming a real problem too. Even if you're willing to agree with their reasons for rejecting these apps (personally, I'm not) the process is still a big issue. There's no way to find out if your idea is okay until you have a finished app ready--after you've spent weeks or months working on it. They need to be much more clear about the things they won't allow. Even better if they could have some sort of idea approval process. I understand they can't approve an app based solely on a description, but if you could at least get a "we probably will/won't allow this" it would be a big help. If they don't do something they're going to stifle innovation, drive away developers, and hurt the quality of apps available. I know if I had an idea at all similar to an Apple app, I just couldn't justify spending any time on it at this point.
I'm really hoping these negatives will get more press so Apple is pushed to address them.
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Joe said 5:08AM on 9-22-2008
Apple's approval process is really bad for business. Apple really need to help developers manage their risk a little better. Why the hell don't they provide opportunity to submit their functional spec and UI designs first? Seems to me this is pretty basic software development 101 stuff.
From a business perspective the iPhone platform looks like a pretty risky investment right now. I just hope Goggle Android is success, the tablet phone market seriously needs some fair competition.