Mobile developers threatening uprising? Apple changes approval process

Things are changing for Apple. The old ways are giving way to new. With the massive drive towards openness and transparency we’ve seen from groups like Android, OMTP and the Limo Foundation, mobile developers have more options than ever when it comes to publishing their apps. And it looks like Apple is feeling the pinch.

We have seen a definite trend amongst the operators and platforms that have made app store announcements in recent months. From Bada to Sprint, they have been touting how much easier their application approval process will be. The only reason that is so important to them is because of the sheer wall of noise generated by complaints about the Apple application approval process.

It is notoriously unpredictable. An entire predictive cult has sprung up about, simply because Apple tends to change it’s mind according to logic that is only obvious to Apple. I’ve head developers say things like “well, Apple can be a bit tricky when it comes to streaming video”. Now, it seems to me that “a bit tricky” is not what you want to hear when you’ve invested time and money into developing an application. If you’ve got an application for sale in a store, you have to contend with tens of thousands of other apps. You have to clamour for consumer attention. With that kind of competition, it’s nice to know ahead of time what actual application process is.

Apple has gotten somewhat better as the tide of angry developers has swollen. In-app upgrades have been allowed for new versions of existing apps, for example, and some applications that had been put “on hold” indefinitely (without any explanation) have been approved. But it takes longer to shake a bad reputation than it does to build it up, and Apple has been annoying developers for a long time.

As a result, we’ve soon two very interesting developments this week.

App develop rejects Apple: picked up from www.tuaw.com, this highly entertaining development concerns Facebook. The developer of the iPhone Facebook app, Joe Hewitt, has turned his back on the Apple platform and handed the project off to someone else. His reason? He says it was completely because of Apple’s review policies. As far as he is concerned, if your app meets the technical specs for an app store it should be approved - and let the market deal with the rest. This, incidentally, is the policy that other app stores are promoting.

Apple improves review process: some of the mysticism has been removed from the approval process. This story broke last week, but Apple was so quiet about it that it has taken until today for it to become widespread. Apple has introduced a new feature that you would imagine they should have had since the start. It’s a very simple tool for developers that lets them know the current and historical status of their app. Seriously.  Check out this pic from Wired:

That’s right. Before now developers didn’t even know what stage of the review process their app was at. No wonder it was such a painful process! Maybe we’ll see Apple gradually loosen it’s death grip on the iTunes Store in the coming months… but probably not too much.