Five Challenges Getting Smartphone App Designed and Accepted for the Apple App Store

Apple provides the platform and tools needed to develop, test and submit an app to their app store. Getting an app approved to the Apple App Store is the Holy Grail for developers as it is highly lucrative.
However, developers have been grappling about Apple’s App Store approval process being controversial and inconsistent since its inception in 2008. Take for instance some apps are accepted then rejected for flimsy reasons, while others are directly rejected without any acceptable reason.
To shed light into this issue, below is some of the challenges developers’ face before getting approval to design and develop an app for App Store.

Despite paying an annual subscription fee to join Apple’s developers program, developers are required to fill lengthy online forms and wait for weeks – that can extend to months – to get the feedback.

As pointed out, the app approval board rejects some apps without providing any logical reason. Most developers complain that there is no transparency in the approval process and that the process is mired with inconsistency and subjectivity.

Most apps are rejected because of minor technical glitches that can be easily corrected by the developer if the approval process had a transparent redress avenue. Minor problems discovered by the approval board should not be allowed to hold up the approval process.

The Apple app store has set well defined but very stringent rules that sometimes muzzle creativity. Apps can be rejected for having spelling errors in the technical jargon or using unpublished APIs. As a general rule no app with a “violent” or “abusive” name will get approved. It’s recommended to have a friendly name for the app to increase chances of passing the stringent approval process.

Several developers have expressed concern regarding the constantly changing online forms and guidelines, which are effected without prior warning. This has resulted in rejection of apps that has been approved earlier. These types of rejections are common for apps that wander into political territory.