Filed under: Developer, iPhone, App Store
Apple adds queue time, contact info to iPhone developer pages
Small steps: reports from several iPhone developers indicate that Apple has showcased two key features on the Dev Center website that may improve the mood and attitude of anxious app submitters. Feature #1 is a queue status graphic (seen here), letting everyone know how long the approval wait should be -- like the line signs at Walt Disney World, only far geekier.
Feature #2 is the presence of a new 'all issues' escalation email address, so developers with urgent bug fixes that need to be prioritized can get their questions answered -- something that the Iconfactory's Craig Hockenberry specifically asked for in his wrapup of the 1st-anniversary state of the store. This email channel has apparently been open for a week or two, but is now being publicized on the front page.
Several other tips & suggestions posts have also been updated in the past 24 hours, including notes on the keywording/tagging options and walkthroughs on changing your app name and assigning/adjusting the app's rating. If you're a registered developer, swing over to the Dev Center and take a look.
[via the delightful Nik Fletcher]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Josh Whittington said 1:46PM on 8-01-2009
Wow. I'm impressed; the FCC e-mail spurned this frenzy of change, whereas a year of angry consumers couldn't move a pebble. It's about time.
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Mikey P said 1:51PM on 8-01-2009
These changes were most likely in progress way before the FCC letter. It takes more than 18 hours to dream up, code, test, and push things live, especially in a corp environment.
Boydbme said 2:04PM on 8-01-2009
too little. too late.
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Gouken85 said 5:09PM on 8-01-2009
It's not too late. Just too little.
I think this whole Google voice mess, may be a good thing. With all the bad press they've been getting, plus the FCC intervention, Apple may actually do something to improve things.
reallycrazyguy said 3:45PM on 8-01-2009
It still means hundreds and hundreds of applications take more than 2 weeks between when they are submitted and when the developer gets any notification of either approval or rejection. It's still an open-ended, no feedback until the very end, opaque, process.
And just having an 'escalation' email address is meaningless unless the response you get from that email address actually results in either receiving useful information OR your app being accepted. If it's just for queue-jumping (quick, I need my app approved because of a stupid error), it's not impressive at all.
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Drunken Economist said 4:13PM on 8-01-2009
There's no such thing as 'too late'.
Too late is a mass migration from the (cr)AppStore and Apple filing for bankruptcy.
That's not going to stop me, neither should it stop anyone from slagging on Apple or ATT when they pull the crap they've been pulling.
Something had to change. The entire affair is a train wreck and heads should roll.
As in, 'you screwed up so bad you'll never work in this town again' bad.
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alansky said 5:09PM on 8-01-2009
Some developers know how lucky they are that the iPhone and the iTunes App Store even exist. Some developers will bitch and moan no matter what happens. And some developers are somewhere in the middle. That's life.
Apple sure as hell isn't perfect. But what is? Nothing! Nowhere! Nohow! So by all means let the developers keep putting pressure on Apple to be more responsive and more forthcoming. But stop yer bellyaching, will ya?
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Paul is A Chapel said 7:01PM on 8-01-2009
So true. It's not like we hear all of the developers that make more than an average teacher's salary off of app sales. We only see and hear the bad things, not the good things.
JKT said 1:33AM on 8-02-2009
And some people like you spend their whole lives enjoying the benefits of people before them "bitching and moaning" to get things improved. You're welcome.
VanillaSpice said 1:52AM on 8-03-2009
I agree - devs, blogs and commentors have pretty much assumed that it is only Apple that benefits from developers, and that developers have not benefited at all from Apple. Clearly, the truth lies elsewhere. I think it beyond argument that devs have benefited from the App Store, and I think that everyone should remember it is a two-way street.
nonnus said 4:04AM on 8-02-2009
what a joke
a fake timetable to distract and a "new" email contact that is the exact same one that has been used for appreview submission for over one year, hardly anything new...
it is also the contact channel developers most complain about regarding lack of feedback...
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Jash Sayani said 3:18PM on 8-02-2009
Yeah, and apps like Google Voice are being rejected where as Moron Test becomes the best seller!
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Lars said 4:44PM on 8-02-2009
Curious, all the Apps I'm looking forward to apparantly are in the remaining four percent. I sniff bull. Homer said it best "Aw, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forfty percent of all people know that."
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Jordan said 9:17AM on 8-03-2009
"96% of applications being approved within 14 days"
Don't they mean rejected?
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tradeclean said 10:19PM on 8-27-2009
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amit said 12:14AM on 9-23-2009
This email channel has apparently been open for a week or two, but is now being publicized on the front page
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