App Store Approvals System = No System At All???
I did a post last week wondering (out loud, so to speak) what rhyme or reason lay behind some recent App Store approval and rejection decisions. I also wondered whether some of these decisions were made either by a single person with a severe multiple personality disorder, or by a team of people who just absolutely are not on the same page.
Turns out, there ‘s some (at least anecdotal) evidence for the latter of those two. I heard from a very reliable source this week “ someone who has successful apps in the App Store and has been through the process “ in response to that post of mine from last week, and offering an answer
According to a ‘two-managerial layers up from the demo floor ‘ Apple AppStore representative I spoke with at WWDC, Apple has an entire team of application reviewers. Each one make their accept/reject decision based in part on their subjective opinion of what is appropriate. I asked if they have any sort of guidelines they use which they could provide to developers “ a list of dirty words, forbidden topics, etc. “ to which the representative replied that no, each reviewer makes their own decision about what gets approved. As a result, they couldn ‘t even guess at what would or wouldn ‘t get through the store.
Wow. If that ‘s accurate, that explains a lot. I ‘m sure the whole approvals process is a bit of a beast for Apple “ who are likely swamped by a greater volume of new apps coming through and wanting entry into the App Store than they or anyone else imagined. But it ‘s been a long while now that the App Store has been open (over 6 months) “ and you would think they ‘d have been able to ramp up by now.
Further, you would think there would be some sort of system in place to ensure consistent standards are applied during this process.
Of course, my contact ‘s information may just be wrong “ the person who provided it might not have been in a position to know the whole picture.
Oh well, I ‘m sure we ‘ll know the whole story soon, because Apple are so fond of being open and communicating regularly on subjects like these 
Check out these tweets:
http://twitter.com/eeen/status/1276085579
Quote: Kyper has been rejected by Apple for not alerting users that their high score initials are potentially being sent to a server.
http://twitter.com/eeen/status/1276127726
Quote: I’m sending the high scores in the EXACT same way I do in Scoops, obviously Kyper wasn’t reviewed by the same person who reviewed Scoops.
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Nobody has a dammed clue what is and is not acceptable. Nobody in any of the developer forums can give you a definitive concept what is ok and what isn’t. Its a complete crap shoot – and complete crap – that Apple needs to work out ASAP. Its really hard to sit down and write something and have no idea if its going to get accepted or rejected.
great way to do an app approval system. Now tell the south park crew to resubmit their app until apple lets it in
@ nate – I agree – call it North Park, change nothing else, and get it back in the queue
I would imagine the guys at Mantis would agree that there is no rhyme/reason to app store approvals. They submitted 5 new versions of their product at the same time (around the 2nd or 3rd week of December) all built on the same core code (they only difference was in textual content) the 4 paid versions have all been approved/available since 1/17/2009, the free version of their app has not been approved to this date and they have received no logical explanation for why from Apple. Even with users inquiring of Apple as to what’s going on, the response is just form letter junk. They need to get their act together. An appeals process or at least reasonable status reports to the developers as to what the hold up is.
How are these small devs supposed to earn a living when their products are being held up for no logical reason for what’s going on 2 months now?
Substandard for a company that prides itself on quality products.
Frustrating to say the least.
R
@ ricm – that’s an awful – but I imagine not uncommon – story. I hope that situation gets resolved soon. I also agree that an appeals process would be a great idea, and status reports would be good. There just needs to be a lot more and better communication on this subject …
Agreed. Perhaps Cydia Store will help Apple to act quickly.
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