Apple today informed developers that they can offer pre-orders for apps up to 180 days prior to when it's released for download on the App Store, giving developers more time to build excitement for app features, services, and content.
Now you can let customers pre-order your app up to 180 days before it's released for download on the App Store. Take advantage of this longer lead time to build more excitement for your app's features, services, and content, and to encourage more pre-orders. Once your app is released, customers will be notified and it will automatically download to their device within 24 hours.
Apple has been allowing developers to offer App Store pre-orders since 2017, with the pre-order feature letting customers make a purchase ahead of an app's release date. Pre-orders are available for both free and paid apps.
Prior to today's change, pre-orders could only be made available for up to 90 days before an app's release. Once the release date for an app rolls around, the app that has been pre-ordered is automatically downloaded to the customer's device, with paid apps charged at release.
Top Rated Comments
I don't think there's been a single article on MR about any app being available for pre-order, but maybe I just missed it.
Games are the only category where you'd want to have pre-orders, I think... but we're talking about iOS, AKA, a platform nobody waits years for games to come to it.