Developers Frustrated With Apple

Posted by: Olga Kharif on August 14

I still remember how excited software developers were on July 10, when Apple launched its iTunes App Store, which offers iPhone applications from third-party developers. Many programmers figured Apple would allow them to finally make the big bucks off of their craft.

But while some developers have since struck gold, many others are seething with resentment. After submitting an iPhone application early, in June, one developer is still waiting for Apple to approve this software and to put it up for sale. From what I am hearing, the queue is enormous.

Perhaps Apple doesn’t have enough staff power to review the flood of applications it receives fast enough. But developers who are used to having their applications approved within days are stuck in review with no end in sight.

Some developers tell me their software has been rejected for reasons they don’t find satisfactory. In several cases, one application might get rejected, while another one — just like the first one — gets approved. There’s no consistency. No one seems to know the criteria Apple’s reviewers use to give a thumbs up or thumbs down. That’s troubling, and this problem has to be corrected, fast. Or, as fast as the software industry embraced Apple, it could turn to someone else.

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