Head First iPhone and iPad Development, 3rd Edition

Chapter 6. The Review Process, Design, and Devices: How to live with Apple

iOS development comes with some strings. Everybody has heard the war stories. The Apple review process is famous for being painful and having tons of rules you’ll have to follow. Yes, there are some hoops to jump through, but once you know what you’re doing, it’s not nearly so bad. And besides, once you’ve gotten your app approved, the massively popular App Store is waiting for you... full of eager device owners with a few bucks to burn. So what’s not to love?

Yes, writing apps can be simple when you know what you’re doing. But there’s a little more work involved to actually sell your app in the App Store.

The App Store could just as well be named the Apple store. It is Apple’s world you’re playing in, and they take their ownership of the store (and your device’s hardware and software) pretty seriously.

If you spend much time developing iOS apps, you’ll start to hear the war stories. Some beautiful app got rejected three or four times by Apple’s review process, while the Facebook and Apple Trailers app released four new versions. Or what seems like the smallest detail—a URL in a description or a bad naming choice—got an app shot down.

Yes, you have to get your app approved by Apple for ...