Push applications delayed, some info

[DominikB]

Hello friends,

I've got some informations about Push applications delay, so why not sharing them with the community. We have developed NotifyMe, the first OS 3.0 Push based reminder on the iPhone. The release delay of Push based applications is intentional. We have submitted NotifyMe 10 days ago, the same time as Beejive has submitted their new BeejiveIM version with Push capabilities. We have just received (now, sunday morning in Cupertino) an apology from Apple App Store Staff.

The time and the day of this apology certainly shows that there are some troubles and Apple is in a hurry fixing them as soon as possible. However, based on our Push user account records, they haven't even started using NotifyMe yet (it's not possible to use the application without creating the user account first). The problem does not seem to lie in applications themselves, but more probably Apple's technology backend, which most probably needs some last setup before even starting to review the applications. So the applications might be just waiting untouched, un-reviewed in the queue.

However, in our testing conditions (ad-hoc provisioning profiles, production APNS), all Push messages with NotifyMe are working extremely well and right on time, so this creates even more mystery. According to other feedback, AIM instant messenger testers have also reported very positive results when testing Push.

All mayor Push based apps seem to be delayed and it's very possible that all of the development teams have received the same apology.

EDIT: It's very possible that the delay has nothing to do with Push at all and the situation is about slow approving in general. However, we've noticed some small errors when communicating with APNS Feedback service.

Dominik,
PoweryBase

[thetexan]

Well considering Apple promised push would be released about a year ago, another delay of a few weeks can't be bad.

[nfl46]

F-ck, man!

No MMS
No Tethering
No Major Push Apps

Get it together Apple/ATT!!!!! You had PLENTLY of time to prepare for this moment! PLENTLY!

Looks like July, at least, to we get all three of those. Stop promising us things that we never get on time! Thats what makes people pissed off.

[AHDuke99]

Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. They came out a year ago and claimed that we'd get notifications and delayed it, and now another delay? Really? Another couple of weeks? Why did they just not wait and launch 3.0 and 3GS in July when AT&T and Apple had it together?

[Reiger]

Thanks for the update. It seems that other apps, without push-capabilities are also delayed. Couldn't it be that Apple just has an enormous backlog. This could be, for instance, because the time between the GM and the final release was too short to review all the applications. Or because of some other unknown reason to us, there is just too little capacity to review apps etc.

[1Zach1]

Can anyone else confirm this?

[mattpreston11]

i dont understand whats better about this notify me app, than using calendar instead with an alarm set?

[TheSpaz]

Why does it seem like we're always waiting for something?

1.0 comes out... we waited for third party apps

2.0 comes out... it's really buggy and apps crash all the time, so we waited for fixes. It wasn't very solid until 2.2

Now we have third party apps, but now we want MMS and Copy and Paste, but at least we're promised push to be released in 2 months.

2 months pass and still no push and no explanation from Apple. Almost an entire year later, they say "Sorry, you'll have to wait for 3.0 this summer for push"

3.0 gets released and we still don't have the push apps. I was set to believe that when 3.0 was released, there was going to be a flood gate opened with all the special 3.0-only apps that developers were submitting months prior to 3.0 GM. I'm still waiting for my updates and there's only been a couple of updates for my Apps and they have nothing to do with push.

Now we wait for Apple to approve push apps as well as wait some more for them to fix 3.0 bugs and I have a feeling 3.0 won't feel polished until 3.2.

All I can say is... I'm getting tired of always waiting Apple.

[srl7741]

3.2 sounds nice

[Krafty]

Originally Posted by srl7741

3.2 sounds nice

I think 3.2.1 will be the mark.

[iParis]

Originally Posted by Krafty

I think 3.2.1 will be the mark.

Haha. Sounds familiar...

[Vandam500]

Originally Posted by iParis

Haha. Sounds familiar...

. The thing I have yet to understand is that Apple has had over a year since they announced Push Notifications which means they have had over a year to get it working correctly. Why is it now that it has finally been released are they now delaying it even more...sigh. Extremely frustrating and disappointing is what I have been thinking about Apple lately (don't get me started on the 3G S).

[razorianfly]

Originally Posted by TheSpaz

Why does it seem like we're always waiting for something?

1.0 comes out... we waited for third party apps

2.0 comes out... it's really buggy and apps crash all the time, so we waited for fixes. It wasn't very solid until 2.2

Now we have third party apps, but now we want MMS and Copy and Paste, but at least we're promised push to be released in 2 months.

2 months pass and still no push and no explanation from Apple. Almost an entire year later, they say "Sorry, you'll have to wait for 3.0 this summer for push"

3.0 gets released and we still don't have the push apps. I was set to believe that when 3.0 was released, there was going to be a flood gate opened with all the special 3.0-only apps that developers were submitting months prior to 3.0 GM. I'm still waiting for my updates and there's only been a couple of updates for my Apps and they have nothing to do with push.

Now we wait for Apple to approve push apps as well as wait some more for them to fix 3.0 bugs and I have a feeling 3.0 won't feel polished until 3.2.

All I can say is... I'm getting tired of always waiting Apple.

Your forgetting. Apple actually enjoy making us wait.

R-Fly

[Eso]

That graphic just highlights how completely ridiculous the push system is for to do apps.

It's like mailing a letter to yourself on wednesday that have all your weekend errands to complete.

[twynne]

It may be the exception, but I've been getting push notifications from the 'Pollen' application since Friday - no issues. That and Truphone are the only enabled apps I have, and Truphone rarely gets used so doubt I'll see any notifications from that.

Maybe some apps were allowed through before the problems were noticed??

[gloss]

Originally Posted by twynne

It may be the exception, but I've been getting push notifications from the 'Pollen' application since Friday - no issues. That and Truphone are the only enabled apps I have, and Truphone rarely gets used so doubt I'll see any notifications from that.

Maybe some apps were allowed through before the problems were noticed??

I think it's the apps that are likely to put major traffic on their infrastructure (such as Beejive) that are likely being kept back. Those things are heavyweights.

[MigsVuitton]

Good thing they don't have direct competition otherwise I would have jumped ship awhile back... but if jumping ship means going to a pc or linux based system, I'd rather dive head first into an ocean full of sharks.

On all seriousness, Apple really has been a great company. But delaying important push apps is just god awful when that's one of the major things people are excited about with 3.0

[deimos256]

I think this is the final straw, i bought into the hype last year with 2.0 and the iPhone 3G, since then a lot has been promised and theres always some hangup or delay in the name of quality, but when said thing comes out its still buggy or secretly still delayed. Im glad I didnt buy a 3gs and sign a new 2 year deal. If things dont change by this time next year im going with a BB and possibly a new provider, because with their 3g coverage and MMS and tethering ball dropping, AT&T is getting on my nerves too. How feasible is it that this delay is once again due to AT&T whining that their network is going to melt down??

[monksealpup]

Thanks for posting this, dude. I guess we get to wait ... again ...

[tiresias314]

Originally Posted by MigsVuitton

Good thing they don't have direct competition otherwise I would have jumped ship awhile back... but if jumping ship means going to a pc or linux based system, I'd rather dive head first into an ocean full of sharks.

On all seriousness, Apple really has been a great company. But delaying important push apps is just god awful when that's one of the major things people are excited about with 3.0

Correction: "when [push is] one of the major things people are excited about since the iPhone 3G first launched"

[rKunda]

I can't believe the level of whining in the community. I'm pretty sure there isn't some Apple exec sitting behind his desk laughing at us peasents, savoring the horrible torture he's putting us through. Heaven forbid we don't get everything we want exactly when we want it. Honestly, some of the people here sound like Violet from Willy Wonka. "But I want it nowwwwwwwww!"

If Apple is really that horrible, just jump ship and buy one of the other amazingly awesome smart phones where people don't have to deal with delays or fight with impatience. These dramatic, "This is the last straw!" comments are comical.

[tiresias314]

Originally Posted by rKunda

I can't believe the level of whining in the community. I'm pretty sure there isn't some Apple exec sitting behind his desk laughing at us peasents, savoring the horrible torture he's putting us through. Heaven forbid we don't get everything we want exactly when we want it. Honestly, some of the people here sound like Violet from Willy Wonka. "But I want it nowwwwwwwww!"

If Apple is really that horrible, just jump ship and buy one of the other amazingly awesome smart phones where people don't have to deal with delays or fight with impatience. These dramatic, "This is the last straw!" comments are comical.

I think the people criticizing those who are nonplussed about the situation are far more dramatic than those annoyed with the situation. You make it sound like we want it for free? We paid a lot of money for features advertised to us, and they've yet to deliver. For some people, it's a dealbreaker, but for many of us, it's just annoying and patronizing.

Imagine you bought a car based on a feature, and you prioritize where that feature sat in your decision making process. Then you find out once you drive it off the lot, "Oh, sorry, it's not actually on YOUR car, but we'll add it in later!" You wait a few days, and they say "Oh, sorry, our manufacturing process actually didn't create the item that gives that feature, and it's not working properly. This could be a while..."

A year later, you've driven the car and been satisfied but you're still irked that feature (whatever priority it was in your decision process) still isn't ready. Then, you find out next year's model is being advertised that it'll come out "just in time" for that feature to make it's debut!

... only to find out, 3 days later, a whole new crop of customers just got into your boat. "Oh, sorry guys, but that feature we used to help sell our newest model, and that you maybe based your decision off a year ago? Yea, it's still not ready. I know, we advertised it, we had a nice big press ceremony reiterating the feature, we even apologized (that one time only) for our oversight, and assured you it'd be available to you June 17th! Well... it's not, I mean we just didn't expect it to be so popular to the millions of customers from a year ago and the hundreds of thousands of new customers we presold our newest model to..."

You get the idea...

[duky]

Originally Posted by razorianfly

Your forgetting. Apple actually enjoy making us wait.

R-Fly

Yeah and us consumers always want more, hence--we'll always be waiting..

[deimos256]

Originally Posted by tiresias314

I think the people criticizing those who are nonplussed about the situation are far more dramatic than those annoyed with the situation. You make it sound like we want it for free? We paid a lot of money for features advertised to us, and they've yet to deliver. For some people, it's a dealbreaker, but for many of us, it's just annoying and patronizing.

Imagine you bought a car based on a feature, and you prioritize where that feature sat in your decision making process. Then you find out once you drive it off the lot, "Oh, sorry, it's not actually on YOUR car, but we'll add it in later!" You wait a few days, and they say "Oh, sorry, our manufacturing process actually didn't create the item that gives that feature, and it's not working properly. This could be a while..."

A year later, you've driven the car and been satisfied but you're still irked that feature (whatever priority it was in your decision process) still isn't ready. Then, you find out next year's model is being advertised that it'll come out "just in time" for that feature to make it's debut!

... only to find out, 3 days later, a whole new crop of customers just got into your boat. "Oh, sorry guys, but that feature we used to help sell our newest model, and that you maybe based your decision off a year ago? Yea, it's still not ready. I know, we advertised it, we had a nice big press ceremony reiterating the feature, we even apologized (that one time only) for our oversight, and assured you it'd be available to you June 17th! Well... it's not, I mean we just didn't expect it to be so popular to the millions of customers from a year ago and the hundreds of thousands of new customers we presold our newest model to..."

You get the idea...

+1 Perhaps it doesnt happen to you but at my job if I say i will do something and i don't do it, i get a lot of sh@t for it. when you have this huge media junket for push and then you delay it in a very cloak n dagger manner, you look even more shameful.

[BMac702]

Apple is a lot like the Lakers this year. They are the best at what they do, but a lot of times they are extremely inconsistent and disappointing. That being said, go Lakers!!! lol