New iOS App in Store

[Ben Rubinstein]

On 07/10/2011 21:14, Colin Holgate wrote:
> On Oct 7, 2011, at 3:22 PM, Randy Hengst wrote:
>
>> Waiting for Review …. Oct 1st.
>> In Review …. Oct 6 at 11:26 a.m.
>> Processing for Sale ….  Oct 6 3:20 p.m.
>> Ready for Sale …. Oct 6 4:30 p.m.
 >
> What date did you select for when the app should be available? In my experience it almost seems like they don't even start the review until the day you set for availability.


Not my experience.  We also had an app approved October 6th; which was Waiting 
for Review September 30; it's set to go on sale October 20th.  Ready for sale 
was 10:30am in California, so (if Randy is also quoting PDT or similar) we 
were probably just ahead of him in the queue, and essentially it took the same 
time.  And actually this one popped out of the queue on October 5th because 
there was a problem with the support site, and we resubmitted approx 12 hours 
later (but the submission feedback said we didn't need to resubmit the binary, 
so perhaps it had already been approved subject to fixing the site).  A client 
had an app, also with a postponed release date, uploaded and waiting for 
review on Sep 29, ready for sale Oct 5th, so again approx six days.

So I don't think release date makes a difference.

I don't think that there are arcane subtle rules about how long each app 
spends in limbo; I think there's just a simple queue.  The earlier you join 
the earlier you'll get to the front, but the length of the queue is subject to 
fluctuation, according to things like the approach of a new iOS version, the 
approach of thanksgiving and xmas, sickness or holidays among the review 
staff, etc!

We've seen five hours from Waiting for Review to Ready for Sale (admittedly 
that was an update, not a new app); and we've seen twelve days.  A client has 
had 22 days, though I'm not sure there wasn't a discussion about copyright in 
the middle of that one.

We tell clients that it's just not predictable, and that they should allow for 
two weeks but hope for better.

Ben