One Year Later, Disgruntled iPhone App Developer Still Disgruntled
6:26 pm, September 17th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Ex-iPhone app developer Mike Ash, who has abandoned the platform because of Apple's "nonsense."
One year after disgruntled iPhone App developer Mike Ash wrote about his frustrations trying to get his software approved by Apple, he says nothing has changed. The App approval process is so bad, in fact, he’s giving up altogether.
“I have abandoned the platform,” he writes. “Apple’s nonsense is just too much for me. There’s no joy in iPhone development, and an enormous amount of frustration.”
Last year, Ash wrote a high-profile blog post about his experience working with Apple. Detailing all the hoops he had to jump through, and several rejections of his software, Ash’s post drew a lot of attention from blogs and a lots of comments from developers who’d had similar experiences.
Apple’s approval process has long been the subject of criticism and frustration. The process is secretive and opaque, and developers often complain apps are often rejected or held up without good reason. Google’s Voice App, for example, is still undergoing approval — a roundabout way of rejecting an app from a big and important partner without actually rejecting it.
Apple’s head of marketing, Phil Schiller, has tried to smooth ruffled feathers by reaching out to unhappy developers. The biggest problem with Apple’s process is the sheer volume of apps submitted for approval. Apple’s 40 full-time testers must scrutinize about 8,500 apps a week, according to information from Apple in response to an FCC inquiry. Each app is reviewed by two testers, so that’s about 80 apps a day, per reviewer — every day.
In his latest post, Ash says the consumer’s experience of the App Store has marginally improved, but behind the scenes, nothing has changed for developers.
“Apple VP Phil Schiller has been making noises about trying to improve things, but so far this is just talk,” Ash writes. “Apple’s improvements, virtually insignificant already, have mostly gone to improving the store, not the development process.”
It’s so bad, he’s given up completely. Ash says he’ll write software for the Mac instead, which requires no approval process.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, iPhone | Comment on this article
Why doesn’t he try the Cydia Store? Of course its for jailbroken users only, but no approval needed and it’s just better altogether!
Matthew, on September 17th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
What did this guy try to develop?
Conrad, on September 17th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Macs don’t have an approval process? Interesting. Well, in any case, Apple does need to really improve the iphone development process. 40 testers sounds like a pretty big number to me but 8,500 apps a week, whew, they’re gonna need more testers and easier criteria testing if they want to speed up the process.
kwonstein, on September 17th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
/cry
if apple won’t approve your app then sell it elsewhere like everyone else who
Kevin Cassidy, on September 17th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Yes. Time to move on to that lucrative Zune marketplace.
Dr.Evil, on September 17th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
How complicated is this guy trying to make his fart app?
PMoe, on September 17th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Odd, it seems to work for thousands of other developers.
Maybe re-title this posting as “Malcontent Complains: ‘I Can’t Be Satisfied’”?
salsa, on September 17th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
What a complete crock of poo. Your link to this guys first submission indicates that he submitted this App with serious bugs twice and had to wait four weeks before a final approval after the problems were resolved. Big friggin deal. Your blog doesn’t disclose what the latest “Bad Apple” screw up caused this whiny jerk to reject the App store.
Dale Smith, on September 17th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Yep and Obj-C sucks.
No offense SJ. Love Snow Leopard BTW. but yeah x-code and obj-c are just awful.
Good garbage collection would be a nice start.. It’s the modern thing to do..
Good article.. I’m never touching xcode again. Only apps I’ll deploy on the iPhone will be through Safari from now on.
Fred, on September 17th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
another whining developer, isn’t there any real news?
Yep, on September 17th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Wow, another whining developer, isn’t there any real news?
Yep, on September 17th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Sounds to me like the app approval process is working as intended. Keeping the crap garbage that developers like this are trying to get published, off the app store.
I for one, welcome our new AppStore overlords
chris, on September 17th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Great, another drama queen.
a FAILpalm, on September 17th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
40 testers? They’re Making enough spondoolics to at least double that measly staff count surely?!
Fuzzypig, on September 17th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
so apparently this guy thought he could just snap his fingers and boom, he’s got his app making him some dough.
sorry love, but no.
his ‘hassles’ weren’t really all that major. complex yes but much in this biz is. and he should know that being a computer developer as well.
so cry me a river.
apparently his stellar product wasn’t so stellar the first couple of times out and he got caught on it. boo hoo.
but in the end, he got the program approved, which is better than some of the squeaky wheels out there.
but hey, if he’s done with the iphone, big whoop. I don’t see that his precious program was really all that wonderful anyway. i mean come on, app that lets you wake up your computer but only if it is connected via ethernet. how is that so important. oh well I see he also has a rather lame looking Golf game also. added in May of this year (after his ‘wretched’ experience with NetAwake).
Charli, on September 18th, 2009 at 12:20 am
His iPhone app was buggy that’s and that is why it was rejected so he then takes his frustration out on Apple. What a looser. Can’t wait to see what your Mac app will be because I’ll be sure not to buy it. Please go develop for the Zune you jerk! You’re perfect for the Microsoft market.
Paul, on September 18th, 2009 at 5:25 am
Just curious: can something actually be opaque but not secretive? Secretive but transparent?
SunhilTD, on September 18th, 2009 at 6:29 am
“The biggest problem with Apple’s process is the sheer volume of apps submitted for approval.”
You lie. The biggest problem is that Apple has silly policies, inconsistently applied.
David Westebbe, on September 18th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Reading the comments here, I’m getting the impression that a lot of people simply will not tolerate any criticism of Apple…
Commenter, on September 21st, 2009 at 7:56 am
@Commenter: You’ve just figured that out now???
Jim, on September 21st, 2009 at 5:17 pm