Apple Offers Additional Aggregate Info On App Store Submission Review Status

The new wording of the status indicator leaves some question, however, about whether it continues to refer to an approval rate as it implied previously or if the data refers strictly to Apple having reviewed submissions.

I don't get the difference? Whether it means '99% have been approved' or '99% have been reviewed, but not necessarily approved'?

I think its pretty clear that they mean reviewed. It would make no sense to boast about the % of apps they are approving. Because that could imply two things.
A. They are getting more lenient.
B. They are getting more apps they like.

I can tell you from experience that for the past month every new app / update that I have submitted has been approved or rejected within 3 or 4 days. That is a huge improvement over last year where in some cases it took over 1 month.

I don't get the difference? Whether it means '99% have been approved' or '99% have been reviewed, but not necessarily approved'?

To give a better view of Apple, I'd go with the latter.

Again, how does this help me as a developer?

To give a better view of Apple, I'd go with the latter.

Again, how does this help me as a developer?

Because the contention is that Apple is sitting on app approvals for weeks at a time, doing nothing. If they have reviewed X% in 7 days, then that percentage should be either approved, or rejected with feedback. Either way, you should know something.

As with the whole Greenpeace thing, Apple is just being more vocal about what they're doing, to combat the illusion some people are casting about how the review/approval process is a big black hole for everything and everyone.

Which is to say that you, as a developer when considering your iPhone development plans, should put the reports of exceptions/corner-cases into the appropriate context of all the others: 1% vs 99%. That is, it happens, but it's not typical.

In IT, you only hear about problems. When something is working, you hear nothing. If these numbers are accurate, then that's likely what is happening here: that the 1% are extremely vocal (and it usually gets blown out by the bloggers and news sites), but there's a silent majority where things are clicking along happily.

I can also chime in that turnaround times on app submissions as well as other developer-releated email inquiries have become dramatically faster in 2010. Seemes like they are no longer behind the eight ball and are keeping up quite well. I hope this continues! (but with the introduction of the iPad there may be a surge of developer submissions)

-John

I've had 4 or 5 app submissions so far this year.

All of them have been approved within 7 days, some within 2 days.

Last year approvals took 2 weeks.

My feeling is that Apple have a new standard of 7 days they're working on, rather than the old standard of 14 days.

Or, it could just be that they've employed a lot of extra reviewers for the onslaught of iPad apps in a couple of months.

*still thinks it's an automated process, that apps are approved/rejected by AI*

*still thinks it's an automated process, that apps are approved/rejected by AI*

lol just like steve jobs is a robot

I've had 4 or 5 app submissions so far this year.

All of them have been approved within 7 days, some within 2 days.

That's awesome. Now, if only I had a good idea for my next app. :-(