14 weeks 4 days 1 hours 15 minutes 51 seconds

Most apps take about a week to get approved. This is what Apple claims, and my own experiences with Bubble Burster have been even better. However, I recently submitted an app that has taken a little longer. When I started it in January, I figured there was a very likely chance that Apple would not allow it. I started the project knowing full well it may never make me any money, because I wanted to be able to use it myself.

I submitted the app, Google Voice Messenger, to Apple on May 25, 2010. On June 2, 2010, the status went from “Waiting For Review” to “In Review”. That day, according to my analytics software, they opened the App twice on two different devices. That night, I received an email that read as follows.

Dear David Beck,

We are currently reviewing an app that you submitted for inclusion on the App Store, and want to let you know that the review process will require additional time. We apologize for the delay and will provide you with an update on the status of your app as soon as possible.

Application Name: Google Voice Messenger

Application Version Number: 1.0

Application SKU: 100012010

Application Apple ID:372709006

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this notice please contact us at appreview@apple.com .

Sincerely,

The iPhone Developer Program

This is a fairly common letter to receive from Apple, and given that it was the beginning of WWDC, their biggest event of the year where they introduced the iPhone 4, it’s no surprise that there were a surge of these letters. Following that there was the release of iOS 4.0 and the iPhone 4 itself. Needless to say Apple was a little bit busy. Nevertheless, while most apps were delayed about a week, I am still awaiting a reply.

On June 18, 2010, I sent the following letter to Apple.

Dear App Review Team,

I received a notice that you would require more time to review my App, Google Voice Messenger on June 2, 2010. That was more than 2 weeks ago and more than 3 weeks since I first submitted the App. Is there any specific problems that I should know about? Can you give me any time frame for when it will be approved?

David Beck

A few days later, I recieved a standerd reply.

Dear Mr. Beck,

Thank you for the email. We apologize for the delay. Your application is still in review but is requiring unexpected additional time. You will be updated with further status as soon as we are able.

We appreciate your continued patience.

Best Regards,

Melody
iPhone Developer Program

Apple is nothing but consistent.

On July 8, 2010, out of desperation and friends prodding me, I sent an email to Steve Jobs asking him for any information. In order to maximize my chances I kept it short, sweet and to the point.

I uploaded my app, “Google Voice Messenger” 6 weeks ago. What is taking so long? Do you have to approve it personally?

David Beck

As expected, I have yet to receive a response. Perhaps he couldn’t download the email because he was holding his phone wrong.

If you aren’t aware, Google themselves got their Google Voice app rejected a year ago. The reason Apple cited was that the app “duplicate features that come with the iPhone,” but many surmised that AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the US, had something to do with it.

Why did I even hope that my app would get approved? First and foremost, if you are to believe Apple, their reasoning was that the dialer looked and acted exactly like the built in phone. The problem here is that Google Voice is not a standalone phone service; it requires a phone to route calls through. This means that when you place a call in the Google Voice app, it opens the system phone app that looks just like the app you were just using. This obviously could get very confusing.

My app is a little different in this regard. First, it isn’t a dialer or a phone. It only focuses on text messages. Text messages don’t need to be routed through a phone and can be done completely over the internet, and more importantly, completely from within a single app. A user could hide the built in texting app and completely replace it with mine.

The other reason that Apple could have banned the app is if someone at AT&T dennied it. This is definitely a possibility as AT&T would be losing minutes and text messages to Google. Having said that, AT&T has started to loosen the restrictions on their network. In October of 2009, 4 months after Google Voice was banned from the App Store, AT&T lifted the ban on VOIP over the  3G network (Voice Over IP is the ability to make phone calls over the internet without being charged minutes). Likewise, it has started to lift limitations on video over their network.

There could be any number of reason my app is being delayed. Apple certainly hasn’t communicated with me about any problems or reasoning, so I am left to guess. What seems most reasonable to me is that it requires approval from a lot of big players. Realize that this single app concerns not only Apple, but AT&T and Google as well. Another possibility is that Apple knows something I don’t; perhaps Google is getting ready to release an official app and Apple is waiting for that to be ready to approve mine. It’s possible that they are trying to hold it as long as possible to avoid the PR hit when they denny it.

Even through all of this I am still a supporter of the “walled garden” approach to the App Store. While it is not without it’s faults, this instance certainly being one of them, the experience is, in my opinion, worth it. I like not having to worry about viruses as a user. I like not having to worry about payment processing and DRM as a developer. I like that when I tell someone about an app, big or small, no iPhone user ever has to ask how to get it because it’s the same for all apps. The App Store is a great equalizer for developers. Nowhere else would you find an independent developer facing the same problems as a multi-billion dollar company.

If you want to know the second (well day at least) that something changes, you can enter your email below:

I can’t say I am too surprised by the low turn out. My low end estimate was a little higher though, at $20 in the first month. I knew going in that there were 75,000 apps (well 80,000 by the time it actually released) on the store already, and that because the only ones visible to most people were the ones in the top 20 and you couldn’t get there unless you sold a lot of copies and you couldn’t sell very many unless you were in the top 20.

To combat the problem of visibility I used some advertising promotions I had been saving. Google gave me $100 ad credit to sign up for AdWords and my hosting company, LunarPages, gave me a $25 credit for FaceBook. Unfortunately, those have not been very successful and I think I will pull them when the promotions run out.

One thing that is often suggested is to make a “lite” version of your app for free. I am working on this right now. It is difficult for me as a programmer to create a lite version because it means taking functions out that I have spent a lot of time putting in. When it is finished, the lite version will have all the functionality of the full version but will cut the player off when they score more than 50 points. A score that takes a while to accomplish.

The other suggestion is to get blogs like Touch Arcade to review your app. I plan to do this once I have released the lite version. Even still, most people don’t read these specialized blogs.

The original plan was to introduce what I had for $.99 and then, once I had updated the game with more features like saving score and games, I would raise the price to $1.99. I advertised that it was $.99 for “a limited time”. Well a few days ago I upped the price as planed when Apple approved version 1.2. So far no one has made a purchase at the new price, but that is not necessarily any different from when it was at $.99. We will se if I can make 3 sales next month to match the income (if you can call it that) of the app at $.99.