You have no clue. They have probably checked everything else, and this is what failed. And no, they didn't spend 4 weeks sitting there looking at this. There are thousands of other apps to go through - there's a queue. Or do you really think an app gets dropped into the lap of a reviewer, they decide to skip everything else look at it for four weeks, at ONLy the keyword listing? They will actually go through whatever process it is and flag everything that will make it fail the approval process. In this case, keywords.
All I know is, with all the money Apple is making off devs (especially the independent ones, who work even harder), they should invest some of it in adding more members/more efficient members to their approval team. IIRC, it's a 70/30 split between devs and Apple. If a game does really well, Apple's getting 30% of the profits for basically doing nothing more than approving the game, and then putting on the App Store. It's basically all profit and no work on their end, so it's in their best interest to keep devs happy by keeping the approval process running smoothly.
I think that's a bit unfair. They laid ALL the groundwork for the appstore to exist. They made the development kit. They made the platform. They provide the servers. The only reason iPhone developers even exist is because of Apple. Without the appstore, would people even be buying anything? BUt you are right in that they should stream line the approval process by more staff. Still, the appstore is what it is. Noone complains that other platforms have a wait period for approval. The only reason people are getting upset is because developers pre-announce their titles to hammer up some hype, with no clue as to when it will actually be out. Rather than tell the general public that something has been submitted, they should just tell people it's coming out soon. It's really not Apple's fault a bunch of impatient people are refreshing the store.
well when apple trying to justify that it canned google talk, says most apps are approved in 14 days - we can get a bit pi**ed off with apple when after 28 days say the keywords only are wrong. And lets really not forget what a monopolist apple is ! If microsoft had done half the stuff apple had done people would be screaming loudly
Most. And they're probably right. For most of the time. They're currently in a busy patch. Regardless, one app I was waiting for an update after submission came two days later. I don't think it's our place to get annoyed when things are disapproved, as we are not really part of the process. Developers, sure. Again, that ISN'T the only thing it was checked for. Chances are the entire app was checked, as per normal, and the only thing wrong was keyword violations. Yes, Apple are monopolistic in some ways, but developers are entirely free to bring their app to other appstores. Apple is not preventing them from doing so. The fact that other appstores are either non-existent, not profitable, or just plain crap is not Apple's fault. If Microsoft had done the same thing, people would be screaming yes, just as people are screaming now. REally, what has Apple done that's so wrong? They are a bit slow on the approval process, and aren't as forthcoming during that process - that's all. I would say geodefense was dropped on them 28 days ago but it probably wasn't even looked at (being in the queue) until at least two weeks ago.
This statement shows a real lack of knowledge about the phone industry. Apps have been available for mobile devices in general and for Smartphones in particular for over 15 years. Until Apple announced the App Store, there was no such thing as a "wait period" for approval. Palm Treos and Window's Mobile Smartphones have managed to exist without anyone pre-approving their apps since 2002. Nokia has had an app platform for almost as long without having to be the gatekeeper. So, perhaps the reason that people don't complain about the wait time for over platforms is that for most platforms there isn't one, and for no similar platform is there one that is nearly as long as Apples is turning into. Michael
Wow, this got rejected because of "typing violations"? There are literally 100+ apps that are the dumbest apps ever and they dont get rejected
I love your posts mrkgoo. They are full of clear statements about things you couldn't possible have any information about. Developers, Industry press, reviewers and web sites can't get any information about the review process, but you apparently have a great source of inside scoop. Or are you just making stuff up? And yet last week they said that 95% of the apps are approved in 2 weeks. Hmmm, interesting. Michael
No i say it was on queue for a week but the game is really long so it took a while EDIT: 2000th post!!
I was referring to other platforms, not necessarily mobile phones. For example consoles, which don't have 'approval' times due to gatekeeping, but have publishing times and so forth. My point was regarding the time spent by a consumer anticipating. I don't claim to know anything about the mobile industry, and I was so much referring to what causes the wait time (I don't deny that Apple are gatekeeping, for example) - it was just used to illustrate the perception of approval times. An app gets released tomorrow that I never heard of - bam!, it is perceived as being instantly available, when it could have easily been delayed several times. As you say, until Apple, there was no wait period. This shows that Apple are handling things very differently from the 'traditional' phone industry. The appstore is very different form both other mobile distribution as well as console distribution. For sure, if there were no wait times, there wouldn't be complaining, and because Apple are the gatekeepers, people will complain - I was only saying part of that is due to perception of waiting. I don't think the complaining for a couple week period after submission (on average) is really that big a deal to the consumer. Definitely, developers should be up in arms at the lack of information from Apple, but as the end user, I don't see how the wait period really affects us. Note, I'm not saying we don't have the right complain. Complaining that Apple are doing a poor job is somewhat misdirected - Apple definitely do need more staff - and in that regard they ARE doing a poor job, but to think that apple had geodefense swarm for four weeks, looked at nothing else except the keywords and rejected it is unlikely. Well, I'm glad you love them. I don't know anything - they are just my opinions and best guess based on facts and common sense. Does anyone really believe that Apple have been looking at the keywords for 4 weeks? I'm just speaking from realistic logistics here. I don't mean to present my arguments as completely factual based on evidence - if you want, you can qualify every single statement I make with "The way I see it, I guess that ...". Correct. It's one of those outliers that happens to be in the 5% - it's taken longer than usual is all I'm saying. How many apps have been approved (several times even) over the course of a year have fallen within two weeks approval success? I'm just not disputing what Apple are reporting. For sure, this number could drop further if Apple don't do something about it, but up until now, if something has taken longer than 2 weeks, then it's part of that 5%. In the end, I'm not here to argue. People can believe that Apple have only been looking at the keywords for four weeks, and that that's all they've been doing. I tend to think the simplest, most logical answer is the most likely one, and I believe that to be that they don't have the staff capacity to crank out approvals any faster than they have been. I don't lay claim that I know anything, and I don't pretend to. Apologies if you read it that way. I am in no way affiliated with the mobile industry nor Apple, Inc.
The GeoDefense dev seems like a good guy, there's no way he'd put search term BS in the description. Which means that we gotta wait longer because of some small keyword technicality
Well, here I kind of agree with you and I kind of disagree. I don't think they looked at keywords for four weeks. I think they did nothing for 27 days because they are so overwhelmed and understaffed and then on the 28th day they looked at the keywords first and rejected the app. Since, if they reject based on invalid keywords, all they tell the developer about is the invalid keywords, it would make no sense for them to run a full test on the app before checking the keywords. It makes more sense that they would first look at the quick easy stuff and reject the app based on that - if they are going to reject it. Perhaps you should dispute what apple is reporting. According to apple, each day 1700 new apps are submitted to their 40 testers. I sincerely doubt that they are getting many apps done in two weeks. Michael
What they have done that is so wrong is to insist on every developer going through a cryptic and incompletely defined approval process and then not staffed up to handle the number of apps that have been submitted. Like the MPAA, the have refused to exactly define what is acceptable and what is not, so developers are left to guess and go through trial and error process. Michael
You're entitled to your view. It's possible that's how they do it. Maybe it makes sense in some ways, since they probably go over the whole process again. I just think it makes more sense to go through whatever process they go through, and have conclusion list at the end of it. If Apple don't do that, they're stupid (also arguable ). I don't think they review it until something is wrong and reject it - it's much more efficient to review the entire thing. Just to point out the 'entire review process' could be an elaborate code-combing, or it could just be a ten minute look. Who knows. Possibly. I tend to trust the facts as presented. Of course it's entirely possible that those numbers are headed downhill, as I stated. After the past month get accounted for, maybe it's closer to 90% - especially after 1,700 apps per day I've seen the math - cent claim that with those numbers, it amounts to 85 apps per reviewer per day (apps get reviewed twice). They say it's 6 minutes per app on a typical 8 hour, 5-day week. To be honest, I don't even think the review process is that rigorous. It's actually in Apple's best interest to approve apps when they can - that's a huge revenue stream. Blocking apps actually cost them money. But they have a system to uphold, and I think they're headed in the right direction. If they forego gatekeeping (which means getting rid of the appstore as a central place for apps), and just have it open, people wouldn't be buying as much. Most indie developers wouldn't even know where to start to get an app made, published and released on other platforms. I agree, I don't think they are getting that many done, at least not well - and hence why a few slip ups, and now long delays. They definitely need more staff dedicated to this. Man, gotta say, it's probably such an inane job.
I agree entirely with this, as I said. Lack of staff and clarification of what's needed to be approved. That has obviously imputed developers a lot, and they are right to complain. To clarify, I was meaning that they haven't really directly wronged the consumers complaining in here. I definitely think developers should have more explicit instructions. In this case, they should have been more explicit regarding what is considered a keyword violation - either got a couple of quick reviews not looking at the list of games mentioned (and after all, it's not Apple's decision to decide what genre games are in and to decide whether it's similar or dissimilar); or Apple are making the steps to crack down on it entirely. On this note, I think it would be unlikely that Apple will go back and 're-review' other titles to catch those. Who knows, maybe they are, and that's causing a huge delay as they go back and re-review other apps for compliance of new regulations.
I got good money on 4 weeks... Apple don't let me down - take your sweet time. I bet you can dig deep and find another keyword violation.
