Marco.org

It looks like I’m not the only one whose iPhone app updates are sitting in limbo.

Frasier Speirs of Exposure: [currently down]

Apple requires that every single update to every app go through the same vetting process (although who knows exactly what this involves?). I submitted Exposure 1.0.1 to the App Store last Friday and, five days later, one version is “In Review”. The other is still, mysteriously, “waiting for upload”, even though I already did.

If Apple can’t guarantee a maximum 24 hour review process, they should drop it. What would happen if I was trying to correct a data loss or security bug, and the update sits in App Store limbo for five or ten days? Fortunately I’m not facing that situation, but these are fixes for painful crashing bugs that are really affecting users of Exposure. All the while, users continue to comment negatively on these already-fixed-but-not-released bugs in Exposure’s reviews on iTunes. Without demos, those reviews are an app’s lifeblood.

I can understand Apple wanting to check new applications, but holding up bug fix releases for five days or more is both annoying to and damaging to developers’ reputations.

Brent Simmons of NetNewsWire:

I’ve been working like crazy on updates to NetNewsWire for iPhone — but, unfortunately, updates aren’t being pushed to the App Store yet. I don’t know why, though I imagine it’s just that things are crazy in the early days.

I don’t know when updates will go out — wish I did.

[…]

Again, I have no idea when any updates will actually appear. But I have indeed been working as quickly as I can — I’ve been pretending to myself that you’re actually getting the updates.

Apple Support Discussions: Anyone have an update app approved yet?:

I have been waiting since Friday afternoon. It’s very annoying, because by now I already have a newer update! So even when Apple gets around to approving my v1.1 app that was submitted last week, I’ll already have a v1.1.1 or even v1.2 ready.

And you can’t delete a pending update or replace it with an even newer one. So I just have to wait!

[…]

My customers are complaining and all I can do is sit on my hands.

I’m facing a similar problem: I submitted Instapaper 1.0.1, which fixes a few small bugs and adds a major feature (article delete), early Saturday morning. It’s still “In Review”. Every day that this update isn’t published, I get more negative reviews clamoring for features or fixes that I’ve already done mere hours after the app’s launch.

I thought it was just me because I’m a small fish. But if Exposure and NetNewsWire are getting ignored, I really don’t stand a chance. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think any updates for any applications have been approved by Apple.

Either fix the approval process or drop it.

Why not whitelist developers to issue updates freely (or after very minimal review) to already-approved apps?

We can’t be expected to develop and support high-quality 1.0 software releases on a very young platform when we can’t conduct large beta tests and we can’t issue prompt updates.