14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is putting an end to App Store name squatting, after amending the App Store Review Guidelines to the delight of the entire developer community. The company is coming down hard on developers who’ve reserved an application name yet didn’t upload any binary.
Previously, a developer could think out a name for an application and take his time to start coding the software in question, ensuring that no other developer would come along and profit off using that name with another application.
This is not possible anymore, with Apple changing some of the App Store Review Guidelines this week.
Besides allowing third-party development tools to spit out iOS apps, Apple now says that developers whose reservations have not materialized in a binary in over 90 days will have their records deleted.
According to a report by TechCrunch, Apple is contacting such developers with the following message (this is just an example where developer and application names and other references are changed):
"Dear Joe Blow,
You have not yet uploaded a binary for your app, Fartorama. Our records show that this app was created in iTunes Connect more than 90 days ago.
If you do not upload a binary for your app by 10 October 2010 (Pacific Time), it will be deleted from iTunes Connect. The app name will then be available for another developer to use.
App Name: Fartorama App Version Number: 1.0 App SKU: 12345 App Apple ID: 123456789
To Upload a binary, first sign in to iTunes Connect and check that your app’s status is Waiting for Upload. Then use Application Loader to upload your binary.
If you have any questions regarding this notice, click Contact Us in iTunes Connect.
Regards,
The iTunes Connect Team"
Also concerning iOS developers, Apple has recently announced a new design for the Sales and Trend reports module in iTunes Connect.
The new design makes it easier to access and view important data about application sales, including a new dashboard with trending graphs of daily and weekly sales data, the ability to review summary data by selling category, Top Products and Top Markets display, and improved navigation to help devs quickly find the type of data they need.