Developers beware: Apple undermines my6sense app launch

July 30, 2009 | Paul Boutin | Comments | |

my6senseDeveloping apps for the iPhone can be a profitable business, but Apple’s review and approval process is still a black box. Apple’s intractable system can foil an app’s launch, as happened today for Israeli company my6sense.

My6sense has built an RSS feed reader for the iPhone that includes smarts that decide what the human operating the app would most like to read next. The app also monitors updates from Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn and Flickr.

But for unknown reasons, Apple has been sitting on my6sense’s app for weeks. The company scheduled a launch for today, July 31, and briefed reporters on its product and corporate background. Those of us who agreed not to publish our stories before 9 am today (an “embargo” in PR jargon) were offered interviews with my6sense CEO Barak Hachamov. The company scheduled a party at the posh Four Seasons hotel in Palo Alto, Calif.

This morning, though, my6sense’s PR contact emailed to let me know that Apple still hadn’t approved the app in time for launch day. Many publications, including CNET, chose to run their stories anyway, with a conspicuous change to describe my6sense’s product as coming soon, rather than downloadable right now.

The unreliable lead time on approval is a huge risk for developers. With the App Store perhaps already over 70,000 apps, most of them fighting for attention with others, a few days of waiting around for an app to be approved could cost an app developer the buzz they need to make real money from their apps. But planning press and marketing ahead of time risks having, as my6sense did today, a launch day without a launched product.

My6sense will now have to hope that people who read about its app today will remember to download it in the future. If and when my6sense’s app is finally approved, a much smaller group of reporters and bloggers will write about it again. A much smaller group of users will download and try it. A much smaller amount of revenue will flow into my6space’s pockets.

App developers are discovering what tech reporters have known for years: Relying on Apple for your livelihood is a risky business.

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About the Author, Paul Boutin

Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • JoshLowensohn
    To be clear we'd agreed to an embargo and I'd written a story timed to publish at the agreed time. At 11:30 p.m. last night, after I'd logged off for the day, they requested we delay publishing indefinitely. I didn't see the e-mail until after the story was already live. If a company wants me to re-time an embargoed story, this is not an effective method.
  • It's not apple's fault - it's ours! When there are so many apps to be approved, the process becomes longer...

    We believe that although the timing is off, users will recognize that this app can revolutionize the way they consume content on their mobile devices. So even though the momentum was a bit screwed up, digital intuition will continue to grow and spread with the help of our already existing groupies.

    and of course, you Paul are still invited to join our party tonight. We will have fun. Loads of fun :-)

    BTW - im not the CEO, just the visionary geek
  • Paul Groves
    I fail to see why such fuss is been made. My6sense is just one of 65,000 applications available for the iPhone and it is not really difficult to imagine that if Apple is approving them all ( or giving them an official Apple Nod) then there must be a huge backlog.And I am sure that among the 65,000 applications areat least 100 similar or better than My6sense.
  • We're in the exact same predicament with our application. Our game has been "in review" for over two weeks and of course you get zero information on where your app is at in the review process. That friendly call center team that gets you set up as a developer suddenly can't offer you a sliver of information.

    The challenge to being an independent developer is that you must have innovative marketing firsts to get any traction for your app. Those "marketing firsts" often require market timing, which of course you can't time because the app review process exists in a black box and your app could drop into the store at any time once you've passed your release date you entered in the submission process.

    While I can appreciate the enormous workload they must be facing to review and approve apps, the complete mystery with regards to standards, the process itself and finally timing presents a huge risk to independent developers. It clearly needs to be more transparent. In particular with timing.

    Jon Myers
    Founder

    JUFTi
    Games for the Common Good
  • Thanks to Apple, developers today can create and distribute their apps without having to get involved with carriers for many months and so on.

    Apple completely changed the rules of the game in this industry. A window of opportunity was opened wide, to blast this medium and take it to places beyond our imagination…

    It is not easy to prepare for the hurricane of apps that they themselves created, but when this type of storm comes, you better be ready. >>> So to our dear Apple folks we say: wake up fast and make the lives of YOUR dear developers (tens of thousands of them) a little bit easier and predictable…

    John, I totally understand where you're at in terms of being frustrated by the unknown, and hope that your app (and ours) gets approved with good timing and momentum.

    Barak Hachamov,
    co-founder and visionary geek
    my6sense
  • zato
    Mr. Barak Hachamov, you are a geek with wisdom.
  • I second that
  • Paul Groves
    But with no sense of proportion. Why should Apple give preference to your application when faced with 65,000 applications most who probably are in the same boat as yours - waiting for an official Apple Nod.
  • Although that is annoying and the appstore process is flawed, marketing before a product is ready is ripe for pushing a product out when it is not ready and leads to all sorts of situations like this. It is better to have the product launched then market it, you can see the real impact of the marketing that way.
  • judah
    you are jumping to conclusions dude. it takes time to get an app approved. they have like 70,000 apps. this isn't apple screwing anyone. all that is going on is they haven't received a response yet.
  • kerouac
    Prolific New York/LA Playwright has written a website worth of stageworks abt cyber issues
    "E (veryman) Mail" 'twitter theater" "Facebook Puberty"
    "Flickr Cut - Ups"
    He can conjure a vital stage work faster than you can text message
  • kerouac
    Guess I'm not as fast as that prolific dude who s ON THE ROAD all over the place with innovative dramatic arts---
    DR LARRY MYERS
    the prolific bicoastal theater authority & dramatist who got some Award in Hollywood for service & show biz plays
  • kerouac
    add to the aforementioned dramatic drama output of PLAYWRIGHT LARRY MYERS
    the new

    "My Space Scrabble"

    another crowd pleaser from New York's
    fastest dramatist in the East