

App Store rejections may benefit indie iPhone developers  - jasongullickson
http://jasongullickson.posterous.com/app-store-rejections-may-benefit-indie-iphone

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drewcrawford
I'm an indie, and I disagree. Big vendors can call Phil Schiller and ask
what's going on. Small vendors can't.

Even putting that aside, companies like Google, etc., can afford to develop
huge complex apps, and run the risk of them not getting in (look at their
navigation app). I can't do that. At most, I'm willing to throw away maybe a
week's worth of work.

After two recent pretty egregious (on Apple's part) rejections, I've got
increasingly cynical about the platform. Needless to say, I'm not putting much
effort into development anymore. Customers e-mail me and say "When is
feature/app X coming?" And I have to tell them it's probably not coming,
unless Apple gets their crap together.

~~~
gcheong
I sympathize with you and I hope your customers complain loudly to Apple so
that they may be prompted to get their crap together sooner.

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gfodor
This is true, but the scope is not really "indy developers" but "developers
with a day job." I've got two apps I hack on on the weekends, and the review
process has been frustrating and painful. (almost 2 months now.)

But, that's it. I don't worry about bills or lost funding or any of the highly
stressful aspects of app development there'd be if this were my "real job."

As perverse as this is, this "review process endurance" stamina I have is a
real competitive advantage, when you consider the fact that most iPhone apps
that do well have a huge first-to-market advantage for whatever thing it is
that they do. Ie, other folks who may have been building the same app as I
have probably won't have the ability to endure the process, and hence my app
will be the first to market with this capability, albeit much later than would
have been possible without the review process.

~~~
gcheong
"As perverse as this is, this "review process endurance" stamina I have is a
real competitive advantage, when you consider the fact that most iPhone apps
that do well have a huge first-to-market advantage for whatever thing it is
that they do."

That is if you get your app first to market. Maybe the person developing the
same app gets lucky and gets a more lenient or faster reviewer - bam there
goes your first to market advantage. Or maybe there is already an app ahead of
you that will get approved just a bit sooner.

~~~
gfodor
Oh of course, I never said that the app review process wasn't a horrible mess.
My only point was that the dynamic in the post is true: being able to survive
two or three months before launching (after development stops) has become a
necessary precondition for writing iPhone apps. This plays to hobbyist
developers as an advantage, but the overall process is still a disaster and a
crap shoot.

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eli
Seems like he means "hobbyist developer" not "indie developer."

The external forces on an indie developer -- someone trying to sell apps to
make a living -- are _much_ worse compared to developers on payroll for a
large software house.

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serhei
Wait, how is this "benefit"? Based on the above, App Store rejections are
still bad for indie developers, but not as bad as for other people, so that
for an indie developer the risk of getting rejected is supposedly more like a
"pain in the ass" as opposed to a "prohibitive liability". But that's just
saying you "benefit" because you're not being screwed as hard as that other
guy.

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jrockway
Indie developers probably don't have as much time or money to burn as do
"real" developers. So the possibility of rejection probably encourages
independent folks to not take the gamble; if the app is developed but
rejected, the code and the time spent writing it becomes completely useless.

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gcheong
I still don't see how any developer benefits from app store rejection. It's
more that it hasn't been an issue for most developers because most apps get
approved, but when it does hit it's still a pain in the ass to deal with - not
a benefit from what I've experienced.

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Barnabas
Interesting take. This adds weight (but not proof) to the oft-repeated mantra
that Apple doesn't know how to deal with businesses, just individuals.

(Edit: spellnig)

