iPhone App publishing to App Store

happyeveryday

Looking for advice/developers experience with publishing apps to the App Store. Approx 2 weeks from finishing (fully built now, testing and bug fixing) first app.
Just wondering how the whole process works, regarding submitting, verification, length of time Apple take to approve etc. Is there anything I should know now to save me hassle later.

PS i haven't signed up to the Dev Programme yet.

synacron trion

happyeveryday wrote: »

Looking for advice/developers experience with publishing apps to the App Store. Approx 2 weeks from finishing (fully built now, testing and bug fixing) first app.
Just wondering how the whole process works, regarding submitting, verification, length of time Apple take to approve etc. Is there anything I should know now to save me hassle later.

PS i haven't signed up to the Dev Programme yet.

You should probably sign up to the dev program now. It might take a few weeks to get everything sorted for Apple. You don't want to have to wait around for all the paperwork to get finished whilst sitting on a finished app.

happyeveryday

Thanks ST, any advise re lenght of time after submiting an app. Lining up promotion etc at the moment and kinda lost to whether it's 1,2 or 3 weeks?
Cheers

cgarvey

There's no set time. There's a badge that gives an indication of the queue (once you sign up/login), but it is just that. At the moment simple apps (e.g. non-complex, no network activity) seem to be taking about 4 working days, with more complicated ones taking 6 or 7 working days. However that can jump to 2, 3 or even 4 times that.

You can set a release date to be well in to the future, if you need to sync launch with promotion. So when the app is approved it won't, automatically, be made available for sale until that date. Well in to the future (to be safe) should be in the range of 15-20 working days. There's nothing stopping you promoting that future date and just make the app available for sale before that, whenever it's approved.

There seems to be a trend now to fanfare when it's submitted for review and saying "pending review" and a second fanfare when it's actually released.

Last thing to note, is that if it's your first app, you might want to allow an extra review cycle (or 2!) if you're not confident in your code / using the platform. Simple things like memory management or not reporting network unavailability properly might well get the app rejected.

komodosp

How much testing do they do? Do they test the entire app or just certain aspects and that it doesn't crash?

Also how patient are they? Will they be willing to go through several passes of testing until your app works properly?

Also I saw one app in the app store and the reviews claimed it was a scam and didn't work at all... Why did Apple let this through?

fiddlemeragged

I've had a couple of apps rejected a few times and I don't think patience comes into it as every time you submit / resubmit an app you will most likely get a different reviewer. If you're genuinely making an effort at getting it right then it shouldn't be an issue.

The reviews of apps are by and large unregulated - I wouldn't pay too much attention. I've had people buy an app (or download a free one) and complain about it not doing x, y and z and it clearly states in the introductory blurb I write that is specifically doesn't do x, y and z!

Good luck with your app, it's great fun when you get your first few sales.

Draco

fiddlemeragged wrote: »

I've had people buy an app (or download a free one) and complain about it not doing x, y and z and it clearly states in the introductory blurb I write that is specifically doesn't do x, y and z!

This drives me barmy. I've an app with 3 reviews - 1 good and the other two bad saying it doesn't do something that I specifically say it doesn't do.

As for how long the submission process is, your guess is as good as ours. It's really a black box that stuff goes into, unseen magic happens and at some point in the future an answer returns.