iTunes App Store Submission Process

Evan Kirchhoff Senior Software Engineer Ansca Mobile iPhone Provisioning Portal setup and App Store submission iOS 4.0 Development Training Camp Hacker Dojo, Mountain View, California August 7, 2010

Today’s topics: Setting up the Provisioning Portal Preparing your App Store submission The review/rejection process Increasing your app sales Some cool tech demos with Corona

Mobile development before the iPhone

2006: Carriers ruled the world

Carriers controlled the interface The app buying experience was poor...

App testing was complicated and expensive In this example, the mandatory test fees were $800 per app per device model; test failure over trivial technicalities was very common

Other people got most of the money Other People You Other People You 25% 30% 70% 75% Then Now

Secretive, mysterious and sometimes frustrating ...but we love them anyway.

Using the iPhone Provisioning Portal It seems hard because it is

Log into your iPhone developer account and start here:

First-time setup Do all steps in one session for best results Work down the left-hand menu, and create at least one of everything

The first step is to create one of these

Use Keychain Access (on your Mac) to create a certificate

Save the Certificate Signing Request file This is the file to upload to the Provisioning Portal

Upload the file here and click “Submit”

Whenever you see “Pending”, hit refresh in your browser

Now click the “Download” button... ...then double-click the certificate file to install in your Mac keychain

(The process is the same for App Store Distribution certificates)

Now add test devices using their hardware Device IDs. You can register up to 100 devices per developer account (per year)

Use Xcode Organizer to get the Device ID Connect your device, then go to Xcode > Window > Organizer

Using a wildcard “*” identifier is easiest at first...

...but you’ll need to generate app-specific IDs if you want to use Apple services like Push Notification, In-App Purchase or Game Center

Provisioning Profiles: three types 1. Developer - for debugging (expires in 3 months) 2. Distribution (ad hoc) - for beta testers, using one of your 100 devices (expires in 1 year) 3. Distribution (App Store) - for shipping your final app to the store

What are Provisioning Profiles? Provisioning Profiles bring everything together: They associate certificates, AppIDs, and devices (They must also be installed on the test devices; either Xcode Organizer or iTunes can be used for this)

Provisioning Profiles bring everything together:

“Distribution” Profiles come in two flavors: (we did this earlier)

“App Store” Distribution Profiles don’t allow device selection (and won’t run on devices)

Download the .mobileprovision files Then double-click to install on your Mac

The files will end up here: For best results, delete the ones you aren’t using!

Submitting to the App Store This part is easier

Be sure to use your App Store distribution profile (If you build using Corona, you’ll won’t see this screen)

To submit your app (Only available at sufficient account privileges!)

If there’s a name you really need, get it while you can! Note that the iPhone will only display names up to 12 characters without shortening them with “...” (It’s possible to use a long name in the store, and set a shorter display name in Info.plist)

What date to choose? Your release won’t happen before this date, but may occur unpredictably after it! Some people change this date each night to tomorrow’s date, during their review period, to try and optimize their initial placement on the App Store’s recent-releases lists

Pick your price

Gather all this information before starting your submission Description field no longer indexed for iTunes app searches (due to rampant keyword-stuffing in this field) 100-character maximum (eliminate spaces to make room for more keywords) “Copyright” field can be whatever you want to show in the store as the author/company App Store reviewers will want to inspect all parts of your app, so include test passwords if necessary

Your calculated content rating determines the parental filtering of your app

The last two are a trick question... Oops!

This large icon must look basically the same as your app icon (it’s safest to be exactly the same) You get up to 5 screenshots - use them all! Use PNG files for best results

“Screenshots” don’t need to be literal screenshots!

Now you are ready to upload the app itself...

Download “Application Loader”

Now click here

You will most likely answer “No” to this!

You must run Application Loader to upload your app But it is actually helpful!

You must run Application Loader to upload your app Zip your final app file before uploading

If using Xcode, the release build file can be found in [Project folder] > build > Release-iphoneos (If using Corona, simply click the “Show in Finder” button after building) Right-click this .app file and choose “Compress” to zip it

Application Loader finds common build problems This saves a lot of time, compared to the App Store rejections that would have happened otherwise!

After the upload “Waiting for Review” (USUALLY A FEW BUSINESS DAYS) “In Review” (ANOTHER 3-5 BUSINESS DAYS) “Requiring “Ready for Sale!” unexpected additional (CONGRATULATIONS!) Your app will appear on the time for review” store within an hour or so. (OH NO - THE DREADED APP LIMBO) Some apps get stuck here for weeks or months...experiences vary widely

What happens during review? Automated scanning for private Apple APIs Some kind of human judgement regarding “inappropriate” app content A little bit of intellectual property monitoring (seems hit or miss) Actual human testing of the app (seems to be about 5 minutes on average, mostly checking for crashes, major style violations, or obvious behavior problems)

What if they reject your app? Usually they’ll give you a reason:

But some rejections are unpredictable! http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/01/apple_boots_widgety_apps_from_app_store/

Congratulations, you’re in the App Store! Now what?

You have 5 friends with iPhones: call them now! You really want to get out of “No Ratings” status quickly, but that requires at least 5 ratings (no written reviews needed, just the ratings!)

Try to get reviews from your happy customers

Ratings totals are a rough proxy for sales totals ...and the multiplier may be around 100x (!) Obviously a very rough estimate, but seems correct to within an order of magnitude

Use your app to cross-promote your other apps This button links to an App Store search by company name

Use Facebook, Twitter or social gaming networks (e.g., OpenFeint, or Apple’s Game Center)

Some kind of promotional website is a good idea... Canabalt features the fully playable game on its website for free, yet sold very well on iPhone at $2.99! (Also note that you can use iTunes affiliate links to get a 5% revenue bonus)

App review websites ? Without naming names, there may be a “pay to play” aspect in some cases Some developers boycott paid review sites; it’s your choice* *Personal view: “All’s fair in love, war, and search engine optimization”

You could also try advertising ! The apps market is still so young that virtually no real advertising takes place! (This will presumably change as app budgets increase)

Use these to give free apps to friends or reviewers. You can get 50 codes per app version.

Promo codes are redeemed in iTunes: They expire quickly - don’t generate too many at once!

With 225,000 apps, isn’t the App Store “full”? Was the web “full” in 1994? (Note 1994 Yahoo interface very similar to today’s App Store!)

App Submission case studies (all information anecdotal) ABC Animals Pad Racers 420 Reminder

What does Ansca Mobile offer developers?

Corona SDK December 2009 Corona Game Edition July 2010

What is Corona? OpenGL accelerated graphics engine Develop mobile apps using a small scripting language (Lua) rather than C++, Objective-C or Java Cross-platform development: iPhone, iPad, Android from the same source

The Lua language www.lua.org

What is Game Edition? Physics engine included (Box2D) Animated sprites & “sprite sheets” Social gaming features

Corona SDK + Corona Game Edition all previous features, plus: * Full Lua scripting language * Hardware-accelerated graphics * Improved texture memory handling * GPS, compass, accelerometer * Animated sprites with independent * Networking (TCP, FTP, HTTP, etc.) framerates per sprite sequence * Camera and photo library * 2D physics simulation * Video playback (streaming or local) * Simple and complex physical bodies * Audio (sound effects or MP3) * Physical properties (mass, friction, * Animation and transition libraries bounce) * Vector drawing APIs (shapes and lines) * Joints, wheels, hinges, pulleys, etc. * Native UI (keyboard, etc.) * Collision detection, including pre- and * WebKit browser views post-collision events * SQLite database * OpenFeint game network support * File read/write * (more social features TBA) * Crypto (md4, md5, sha1, sha512, etc.) * Facebook and Twitter libraries

What can you make? (These are not Corona, but represent the target market for Game Edition)

What can you make? (Made in Corona Game Edition and shipped to the iPad App Store recently)

How does Corona work? Native Engine: C, C++, Objective-C, OpenGL Exposed Scripting: Lua Lua is designed as an embedded language (Very small, very fast, runs alongside native code)

Now is the time where we show tech demos

http://blog.anscamobile.com	3
http://paper.li	1
http://www.verious.com	1
http://www.twylah.com	1

iTunes App Store Submission Process

by Anscamobile

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

4 Embeds 6

Statistics