Average Wait Time for Mac App Store App Reviews Rising Significantly

[MacRumors]

iOS developer training firm Shiny Development has been tracking review times for iOS and Mac App Store submissions for some time, crowdsourcing data from developers disclosing their waits in Tweets. The tools provide an interesting look at how review times have varied over time, and they reveal that there has been a substantial increase in those times for Mac App Store submissions over the past six months.

Shiny Development's annual trend graph for Mac apps shows average review times of a few days to a week through approximately April 1 of this year, after which time the trend began a fairly steady rise. That rise has accelerated in recent weeks, with developer reports now indicating that their apps are spending an average of nearly a month in review.

The sample size is admittedly small for Shiny Development's Mac App Store calculations, with 62 reports having been collected over the past 30 days, but the firm reports that the data is generally fairly indicative of broader trends in their experience.

The averages on this site are based only on the data gathered from Twitter which are a very small subset of the total number of apps which go through review each day. However in our experience it does give a reasonable indication of how review times are changing over time.

The trend for iOS apps is less severe and is based on more substantial data as would be expected for the larger iOS App Store, with 471 data points being included from the past 30 days. Average iOS App Store review times have been within a range of 3-11 days over the past year and currently sit at one week after declining from their peak roughly two months ago.

Developers interested in contributing to the project can find tweet their waiting times using the respective #iosreviewtime and #macreviewtime hashtags, and Shiny Development offers a few guidelines on how times should be calculated.

Article Link: Average Wait Time for Mac App Store App Reviews Rising Significantly

[camnchar]

Tough to draw any conclusions from such a small sample size, but maybe Apple should hire more reviewers for the 6 months surrounding a new iOS release.

[FieldingMellish]

All hands are probably on deck buttressing Apple's Maps app.

[George Zip]

Several Apps I've bought via the App Store have gone through three and four updates in the real world, but still no updates showing up in the App Store. Very frustrating; I thought updates would at least get a bit of a fast track. No wonder users and developers are getting fed up.

[Cougarcat]

But I want Tweetbot *now*.

[ltcol266845]

Originally Posted by camnchar

Tough to draw any conclusions from such a small sample size, but maybe Apple should hire more reviewers for the 6 months surrounding a new iOS release.

Nice job reading! This is about the Mac App Store....

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Originally Posted by Cougarcat

But I want Tweetbot *now*.

That was my first thought as well

[smithrh]

Originally Posted by ltcol266845

Nice job reading! This is about the Mac App Store....

Apple has shared people across OSs (MacOS X, iOS) quite a bit.

[markcres]

There is nothing worse than a graph Y axis that has no units stated on it !

[dBeats]

Seems most Mac App store "Apps" these days are huge 3D games. But 65 samples from a tens of thousands? Ehh, I'm not convinced this is a reasonable sample, let alone reasonable for an article.

[strausd]

My guess is that they got all their people focusing on maps, or the Mac App Store is getting more popular and more apps are being submitted, thus it is starting to take longer.

[ArtOfWarfare]

When first released in January, Battery Status's review took five days. It's first update took 3.

Jump to July and the update took 3 weeks. August took 4 weeks. September took 2 days, but only because I requested an accelerated review when a massive issue came up for users still running Snow Leopard.

[nagromme]

Way too little data to mean much. I’ve had several of my apps receive multiple updates apiece in the last month. They can’t have been waiting more than a few days. (And few if any of them seem to have been critical fixes that might have been specially accelerated.)

The process is so complex, with SO many apps, that I’d need to see a lot more data than just someone’s verbal claim that this is “indicative.” I do recognize the frustration of a given developer experiencing delays, though.

Originally Posted by strausd

My guess is that they got all their people focusing on maps, or the Mac App Store is getting more popular and more apps are being submitted, thus it is starting to take longer.

I doubt they have pulled reviewers into working on Maps (among other things, that would delay iPhone 5 app support). But I would expect EVERY new screen size, and EVERY new OS, will result in slowdowns as tons of apps/updates are released at once.

Is the current slowdown (which may well be real) much different from any other time when there are temporarily a lot of hardware-support updates to be reviewed? (And iOS support—given that iOS 6 has been in developer testing for months.)

[george-brooks]

Is this news?

[brettizzle]

Originally Posted by ltcol266845

Nice job reading! This is about the Mac App Store....

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It was a honest mistake

[steveoc]

I'm seeing a lot of developers growing frustrated with the wait time. I've come across two instances quite recently where the app developer offered a license for the direct download version of their software if you email them a receipt from the App Store.

[Pressure Drop]

Speaking as a developer with a number of apps in the Mac App Store, the graph EXACTLY matches our recent experience. The last few updates we've submitted have taken more than 3 weeks to even enter the review process.

It's actually pretty frustrating when you're trying to push an update (or bug fix) out to users and you have to wait WEEKS for Apple to get around to reviewing your app.

I don't know if Apple is understaffed or getting inundated with new apps, but they've got to do something to improve the situation. Spend a few of those billions of $ and hire some more reviewers. After all, they're taking 30% of all app sales, so one would expect a little faster service.

[JAT]

Originally Posted by markcres

There is nothing worse than a graph Y axis that has no units stated on it !

What about one with no numerals, either?

[sverrisson]

I have been updating six apps in the last month and the longest wait was 8 days and shortest was 2 days.
From my experience there is something wrong with the data this company is basing that claim on.

[needfx]

well, these delays are good news only if your app sucks.

[JAT]

Originally Posted by george-brooks

Is this news?

It's good rant-fodder for devs.

[mmcc]

Mac App Store = freebie central for cheap customers

Even Apple is not making money from it, therefore the lack of resources dedicated to its operation?

The amount of actual money flowing in the Mac App Store is far less than you would guess.

[CGagnon]

As a developer, apple needs to straighten this out if they want to keep devs releasing their apps in the app store.. Otherwise they'll just continue to do it through their own site or various 3rd party sites.

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Originally Posted by markcres

There is nothing worse than a graph Y axis that has no units stated on it !

The Y axis is clearly days. Although I agree, it should be labeled.

[stuffradio]

Originally Posted by markcres

There is nothing worse than a graph Y axis that has no units stated on it !

It makes sense if it's measured in days.

[bogatyr]

Originally Posted by mmcc

Mac App Store = freebie central for cheap customers

Even Apple is not making money from it, therefore the lack of resources dedicated to its operation?

The amount of actual money flowing in the Mac App Store is far less than you would guess.

Weird, nearly every app I have from the Mac App Store is a paid app. I find it far easier to manage purchases through a single system. Though, I hate Apple's review time and their huge cut from sales (30% is ridiculous).

[Chupa Chupa]

Not too surprising given the high # of crap apps being turned out now. Maybe Apple should offer devs in a hurry to get to market an "expedited" approval service for $1000+.

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Originally Posted by mmcc

Mac App Store = freebie central for cheap customers

That day is long gone. Almost every "free" app is either pure junk, overloaded with ads, or requires $100 in "add ons" to be functional.