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Small and medium development houses have to jump through hoops to receive app store approval. As if HTML5 wasn’t difficult enough to work with, there are a number of other problems that come with trying to submit content to additional appstores. Just like a real ecosystem can become polluted over time, the developer ecosystem that evolved out of the market place has grown to a point where it’s hard to submit apps to additional app stores, and this has caused a great deal of fragmentation. Submitting content to the iTunes Appstore and Android Marketplace is a good start, but after that, most people are drained and wouldn’t want to try to get better results with services like GetJar, Amazon and Samsung. This is sad, considering what it can do for a business.

However, there is a world outside of the Android Marketplace and the iTunes Appstore. People spend so much time working to get these two stores to approve their apps that they don’t have time for the more important things in life. If one can get their program accepted at these two stores, they might try to struggle and apply for the Amazon App Store. After that, they don’t even have time to feed their pets, much less manage another developer account at an alternate appstore.

GetJar is a Lithuanian organization that has become rather interesting in the last few years. While many of the other app distribution platforms are connected to particular companies, GetJar is truly independent. It is a smaller digital software store that can be reached from a single location. This ensures that a larger number of customers can view the work in question. Despite GetJar being a small organization, it has been the store of choice for over one billion downloads. After all, there’s no better place to sell apps than across the shores of the Baltic Sea, and the Trakai Island Castle looks like a mobile phone tower as it is.

That’s not to say that GetJar is the only additional appstore around. Samsung is the largest smartphone manufacturer in the industry, and each of their mobile devices comes preinstalled with an application to access their own app store. This can translate into a world of new customers who have ready access to your mobile phone apps without any other special marketing. It’s the perfect captive audience.

The Amazon Appstore might have complex terms of service, but considering how they’re already involved in sales, they know how to run a business. Developers are paid either 20% of the list price or 70% of the sale price. If that wasn’t enough, they offer free apps to keep people coming back.

Businesses like CodeNgo let developers manage all of these stores from one single account, as opposed to having to do it by hand. By being listed on new stores, there are better opportunities for individual apps to shine. The iTunes and Android Markets are cluttered, so by fleeing this clutter, developers can begin to explore the profitable world outside of them.

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The approval process for the App Store is a love-hate relationship. It is a process that most developers state that Apple “loves,” but I “hate”. From the beginning, Apple has had very strict rules on how it would approve or deny new apps. Apple feels that the approvals process should be this way to avoid malicious or damaging apps entering into circulation such as with Android or Getjar. The company believes the current approval process maintains the integrity of the Apple environment.

Secretive Approvals Process

Though Apple has released the “App Store Review Guidelines,” I find the process is still nerve-wracking, frustrating, time-consuming and clouded in mystery. Even with these guidelines, I am still uncertain about how an app I’ve created is fully approved. In some instances, a developer has complained that after “ticking all of the boxes” that Apple required, a HTML5 iPhone app was still denied. This leads me to not want to give my full effort in any future app development for Apple.

Lack of Transparency

Another problem I have with App Store Approval is the lack of transparency. Apple should produce a detailed review of why an app I submitted was not approved. Even before an app is approved or denied, there should be a progress report on the stage the app is in during the approvals process. I have had instances in which I submit an app and then a month later, I am told it is not suitable for the Amazon App Store. The lack of transparency on how my apps are being tested or evaluated during the approvals process just makes it easier for Apple to deny its inclusion.

Lack of Feedback

Another frustrating reason why I hate App Store Submissions process is the lack of feedback. Even though Apple might believe that this process can maintain the quality of apps within the App Store, its lack of feedback makes the process worse for developers like me. Feedback should not only be given to all software designers that have had their submissions denied, but also designers that have had their submissions approved. By giving detailed feedback, we can improve the quality of the submissions we send to Apple.