I was under the impression a developer had the final say in when an app goes live once it's passed Apple's review, thus allowing them to submit it in advance, have it reviewed, and then make it public at a time of their choosing?

Yep. I used this a few times back when I did App Store development. (Though it still takes a few hours to show up for everyone, at least as of a few years ago.)

Still does. Apple continues to completely fail at any sort of distributed system. It amazes me that Google is able to index the entire web so quickly that I can post a comment on a random web site and have it show up in search results two minutes later, while Apple takes hours and hours for something to show up in their store after you push a button on their own control panel.

Google has the same problem; submit changes to a Play Store listing (or a new version) and it takes a couple hours to be universally visible. So it's not an Apple vs Google issue.

Source: I've done far too many app deployments for work (200+)

You're just letting the facts get in the way of a good apple bashing.

/sarcasm

The fact that Google does it badly with their store too doesn't make it any better. Google search was just an example of how a much harder task is done far more quickly. I didn't even think of the Google/Apple rivalry in this space.

Have you considered that maybe it just isn't quite as simple a problem as you imagine?

Of course. And my conclusion is that, while the problem is hard, it can be solved. That it's not solved is either a lack of skill or a lack of will (or some combination thereof), not because it's an impossible task.

On Apple's side, they don't care in the least about the poor experience of third-party developers, as has been proven many times throughout the years. They're also struggling to keep a massive system going which has diverged substantially from its original scope and purpose as the iTunes Music Store. Combine a hard problem with zero motivation to improve it and you get what we have.

> And my conclusion is that, while the problem is hard, it can be solved

And yet two of the biggest software companies on the planet, both who have a huge vested interest in getting people to use their respective app stores, haven't just magically fixed it yet.

I'm also calling bullshit on your claim of not being unnecessarily anti-Apple, or giving Google a free pass or whatever. Every single negative comment you've made about this has been targeted specifically at Apple, making literally no mention of Google's App store which has exactly the same "problem".

By your own claim, the problem should be easier to solve than general web indexing, which Google clearly have a lot more experience in than Apple - so if it's "zero motivation" from Apple, what is it from Google, sheer contempt?

> Every single negative comment you've made about this has been targeted specifically at Apple, making literally no mention of Google's App store which has exactly the same "problem".

I've been an Apple user for almost 30 years. I've been involved with the App Store since before it was available to the public. The only smartphones I've ever owned personally have been iPhones.

I simply don't use Google Play. I've done some Android development, but other people always handled the distribution end of things.

I am commenting personally, based on my own personal experience. I have no idea why you think I would or should be fair and balanced in this, analyzing Google Play with the same force I do the App Store. I'm not in a position to comment on Google Play. I used Google search as a comparison because I use that many times a day.

Why is every single negative comment I've made about this targeted specifically at Apple? Because that's the freakin' topic of of the freakin' conversation here, and because it's what I know.

Go get someone with years of experience dealing with Google Play if you want that perspective. Don't hassle me for not providing it for you.

You are correct. Google Play just added this feature as well.

When you submit your app you can opt for Apple to release it immediately upon approval, or wait for you to manually release it.

Mozilla likely submitted the app a couple of weeks ago and just hit the release button today.

There was a joke made on stage about how it was submitted weeks ago, and they were sweating bullets, because it still hadn't quite gotten approval, and then finally, it came through yesterday.

Unfortunately the app review process is not very transparent. It is unclear why it took so long. It is best to not try to understand it's inner workings.

But for comparison, Firefox for iOS, a MUCH larger app, has had perfectly predictable review times for the past couple of releases: 7 days in the queue, few hours for review.

Focus was 7 days in the queue and then a couple of weeks In Review.

It happens. To all of us.