App Store Approvals Coming Faster in 2010?

**Paul Daniel Ash** · 01-13-2010, 10:29 AM

Stories are accumulating that suggest that the turnaround time for approval of new submissions to the App Store - long the subject of frustration by developers, who were often left hanging for weeks or months - has sped up dramatically. Though the iTunes Connect service was down between December 23rd and the 28th, since it came back online some developers are now reporting that they have seen their apps go up on the App Store in as little as two to three days after submission.

AppleInsider reported on one dev who found that his app had approved by Apple in just 48 hours after submitting it on a Saturday. And The Unofficial Apple Weblog relates the story of an even swifter turnaround time that one dev experienced:

I'm a developer behind Atomic Cactus, we have 3 games currently in the app store, and they all took approximately 2-3 weeks to get approved. Today at 4:00 am I submitted for approval our latest app, which isn't exactly a "fart app" (it's a pretty polished puzzle game with OpenFeint). As of 1:30 pm today, the app is in the app store.

During the last year, many devs grew increasingly exasperated with Apple's sometimes interminable approval delays. While mose apps were approved after a handful of weeks, some languished for months, often for reasons that were not clearly explained to the developers. It seems that Apple has decided to be less harsh in its policies, allowing apps to pass that once got hung up for picayune infractions. Devs also have been provided with better guidelines now than they did before Apple reworked its approval procedures late last year, and some parts of the process have been fully automated.

TUAW speculates that some of the reason behind the speedier turnarounds may have to do with the "T word:"

There's another consequence of the new, speedier approvals: the tablet. With the device due to ship March/April (late Q1, early Q2), and no announced 4.0 SDK, developers were left wondering how they'd have the time to bring their software up to date... With the enhanced review system in place, it's likely that developers will be able to spend those extra weeks refactoring their software.

Whatever the reason, devs are bound to be relieved at not having to wait to see income from their apps, and the userbase will be able to enjoy more and better apps in 2010... whatever device they end up using them on.

image via A Tasty Pixel