On: Apple's Mistake

[lsb]

Current rumors are that approvals go out in under a business week.

Apple uses the number of apps as a selling point, they're proud of that and want that number to rise substantially, and that they're so confident of the App Store they put their own iWork suite on it; they've been fixing that user experience.

[philwelch → lsb]

I don't think Apple has to wait for itself to approve its own apps.

[allyt → philwelch]

But it wouldn't be the most bureaucratic thing done by a multinational corporation.

[fragmede → philwelch]

I'm basing this solely on Apple's size and age, but I'm sure they have their own internal QA and usability process that I'm willing to bet is far more stringent than the App store approval process (and it probably has something in common with the app store approval process.

[jackowayed → fragmede]

Yes, but if something slips by their QA team and they want to push a patch out, they don't have to wait a week. And if they want the new version of iWork to come out the second Steve Jobs takes the stage, they can make that happen.

The App Store takes a lot of things completely out of developers' control. In the end, Apple is still in total control with iWork on the App Store.

[ironkeith → philwelch]

Apple recently released the Gallery app, and released a new version with an authentication bug fix the next day. It's pretty safe to say that they don't have to resubmit apps for approval.

[gaius → philwelch]

I bet it does. Any large organization is really many smaller fiefdoms. Think 1000 cats rather than one elephant.

[cmelbye → lsb]

My (simple) app was reviewed in two business days. I submitted it Saturday night, and it was out of review by Tuesday.

[lallysingh → lsb]

The average is ~14 days now. I'll look around for the source on that and edit this when I have it.

[gcheong → lallysingh]

According to Apple, as of today, 98% of new app submissions and 99% of app updates were reviewed within the last 7 days.

[grinich → lallysingh]

I've heard it's 90% within 14 days; fairly certain two weeks is not the average.

[jfarmer → grinich]

Both of your statements can be true, depending on the difference between the mean and mode of the distribution.

[rodyancy → lallysingh]

Just had one clear in 6 days with a weekend included.

[danw → lsb]

I know quite a few iPhone developers and they're finding approval speeds of 1-3 days since christmas. Not quite continuous deployment yet. I guess any approval process prevents that.