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Apple's Longtime App Store Developer Relations Lead Retires

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Ron Okamoto, who has been working as the App Store's developer relations head since 2001, has retired this year, reports Bloomberg.

apple-developer-banner.jpeg

Okamoto was responsible for overseeing the App Store review process and policies, distributing tools to allow developers to build and sell apps, developer support, developer communications, developer awards, and he also handled the annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

Apple marketing executive Susan Prescott will be taking over Okamoto's role as vice president of developer relations. Prescott is Apple's vice president of product marketing and has been at Apple since 2003.

Okamoto will be testifying in Apple's upcoming legal battle against Epic Games, and that court filing is where it was noted that he has since retired from the company. Okamoto will talk about Apple's App Store policies, developer tools, and agreements between Apple and third-party developers.

Article Link: Apple's Longtime App Store Developer Relations Lead Retires
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/22/apple-developer-relations-lead-retires/
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Wow.. maybe this was the guy who was surprised by hearing about issues with developer relations... if yes then I guess his "retirement" is more of a euphemism.

forums.macrumors.com

Apple 'Surprised' By Developer Frustration With Its App Review Process

Apple has told Australia's competition watchdog that it's "surprised" to hear that some developers have concerns over the App Store and the process in which apps are reviewed, rejected, or approved for distribution on the platform. In September of last year, the Australian Competition and...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
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Reactions: Supermacguy, nt5672, DeepIn2U and 1 other person
Does this mean more or less BS rejections?

Even though nearly every online platform uses it, pepe is still “hate symbol” and can’t be added to the App Store.

I played around with the review process and found any green frog with human expressions is banned from the App Store, regardless if it’s pepe or not.

apple is losing it.
 
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Reactions: amartinez1660, Ion-X, NMBob and 2 others
This is probably related to the fact that Apple had to slash prices and deal with a lawsuit against Epic. Something that never would have happened if enough people weren't so royally pissed at Apple's app store policies.
 
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Amacfa said:
Does this mean more or less BS rejections?

Even though nearly every online platform uses it, pepe is still “hate symbol” and can’t be added to the App Store.

I played around with the review process and found any green frog with human expressions is banned from the App Store, regardless if it’s pepe or not.

apple is losing it.
Click to expand...
All of these companies are following the same model as the FBI has for 30+ years: outsource all policy & designation questions on muh racism to the ADL & SPLC. Apple will never do one iota less than those orgs demand.
 
Another AAPL-focused website is stating that Phil Schiller & some guy named Matt Fischer run the App Store.

Who is this guy Matt Fischer ?

Anybody know his background ?
 
jessejarvi said:
What the hell, Apple? Replacing a dev person with a marketing person when the audience is devs is just idiotic.
Click to expand...
exactly what I thought!

mr Okamoto 20yrs dedication nice work. Enjoy your retirement in full.

marketing person in charge of App Store policies sounds like my pR and developer policy spin and ignorance to ignore details or limit details to the press and future courts.
nit a intuitive nor intelligent move. I’m starting to wonder if Apple has been infected with a worm eating outta its core
 
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Typo in last paragraph.

“Okamoto will be testifying in Apple's upcoming legal battle against Apple, and that court filing is where it was noted that he has since retired from the company.”

Apple against Apple.
 
I sure think Developer relations could be improved. I have a developer account with submitted paid and free stuff on the AppStore. I am far from an expert developer as of yet, but I don't feel it has been very personal or accommodating, transparency is the biggest issue to me. I have stuff with political humor, I have always been spending a lot of time making sure I am creating content which follows their rules, I'll paste these in below. I can also very much agree with what they aim to achieve with these rules. I had rejections for some of these reasons and I tried to engage in a conversation to clarify things, but it has been slow and I never really got an answer. I am aware these are often difficult questions an need special attention, but also, in my case language was an important element as it was in hungarian and you kinda have to be an anthropologist knowing contemporary Hungary to judge these things proper, I don't know what would be realistic for a small developer like me to get in attention to deal with this, but series of automated e-mails were frustrating. My submitted apps getting stuck at "in review" status for a lifetime with no information, just gotta be patient. I had to self reject and make tweaks and hope for the best. Really frustrating. I wanted to know how I could improve the speed of it all, how is my content checked, but I got no help, thats very little even if it is just 99 a year.

  • 1.1.1 Defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary about religion, race, sexual orientation, gender, national/ethnic origin, or other targeted groups, particularly if the app is likely to humiliate, intimidate, or harm a targeted individual or group. Professional political satirists and humorists are generally exempt from this requirement.
 
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jessejarvi said:
What the hell, Apple? Replacing a dev person with a marketing person when the audience is devs is just idiotic.
Click to expand...
They've done something pretty similar with design. That's what you get when the CEO of the biggest tech company doesn't "do" dev and doesn't "do" design, but would rather do stock buybacks and social justice PR.
 
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Congratulations on a great career... and getting incredibly rich in the process!
 
Amacfa said:
Does this mean more or less BS rejections?

Even though nearly every online platform uses it, pepe is still “hate symbol” and can’t be added to the App Store.

I played around with the review process and found any green frog with human expressions is banned from the App Store, regardless if it’s pepe or not.

apple is losing it.
Click to expand...
I had zero problems when submitting apps. All in science and education categories.
 
otternonsense said:
They've done something pretty similar with design. That's what you get when the CEO of the biggest tech company doesn't "do" dev and doesn't "do" design, but would rather do stock buybacks and social justice PR.
Click to expand...

It’s interesting that you brought this up. Just over the weekend, I was clearing out my pocket reading list, and came across this article I had saved some time back.

Apple’s Road to a Trillion Dollar Company

techpinions.com techpinions.com

Of note are points 3 and 4.

Operational excellence. While Steve Jobs gets all the credit for vision and his role in championing Apple’s products, Tim Cook’s role while Chief Operating Officer where he built a world-class supply chain cannot be overestimated. And the framework from what Cook built starting around 2000 is still the foundation for Apple operational brilliance. Before Cook took over the supply chain, it was a mess. Interestingly, Cook’s role as COO has served him well as a CEO. He is one of the only CEOs in tech that understands firsthand the entire ecosystem of what it takes to build world-class products and still has makes his mark on their current operations and supply chain.
Click to expand...

Jobs’ decision to instill his vision and Apple’s cultural identity into his current leadership. One of the more masterful things Jobs did was to invest a great deal of time with key leaders to make sure Apple’s future would be prosperous after he was gone. He was first diagnosed with liver cancer around the 2002-2003 time frame and at that time was faced with his mortality. While he did seek treatment and even had a liver transplant, he knew his days could be numbered. From that point on, he doubled down in tutoring Cook, Schiller, and other top leaders to make sure his vision and the spirit of Apple would continue even if he could not be there to make it happen himself. I have dealt with people at Apple for 37 years, and some of them are still there. They all know the Apple way and what it takes to make Apple successful. That is due to the serious tutoring by Jobs himself in those leaders and is a fundamental reason why Apple has reached this significant milestone.
Click to expand...

Tim Cook is clearly no Steve Jobs when it comes to product vision and showmanship, but that doesn’t mean he has learnt nothing from his time working under Steve Jobs, and I feel that he isn’t getting anywhere close to enough credit for the work he does.
 
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