Holding an app after approval - does it show up in New?

[MelissaMarie]

A few questions. When I've researched I could only find old examples, and when I've tried it with our apps I'm not sure if I'm just not looking in the correct place.

When your app is approved and held for developer release, when it IS released, is it shown in New Apps? Does the amount of time you hold it had a different We had a game that, after being held for 6 weeks, come out and someone who was not involved in development correctly cited the release date as the date it was approved (I could not reach this person to investigate further.)

Any insight or experience from other developers? Has holding an app ever backfired severely, or been rewarded immensely?

[jDun1212]

I wish someone would answer this, I'm really looking forward to hearing the answer!

[metalbean]

I, too, am curious

[jDun1212]

Very bad news as far as i can tell, unless apple has changed their ways.

http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/forum/topic/21417/page/2

But it pretty much says, once the game is approved its time in the New list starts ticking, even if you have not released it yet....

Thats so dumb, and messes me up so much...

[MrBlue]

Originally Posted by jDun1212

Very bad news as far as i can tell, unless apple has changed their ways.

http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/forum/topic/21417/page/2

But it pretty much says, once the game is approved its time in the New list starts ticking, even if you have not released it yet....

Thats so dumb, and messes me up so much...

That thread is old. The article linked by wilczarz is from 2009!!!

The App Store screws up every now and then. Most of the time it works as expected, but sometimes it screws up and your app doesn't get on the new release list. It usually gets fixed after a while and starts working as intended again.

[MelissaMarie]

Originally Posted by MrBlue

That thread is old. The article linked by wilczarz is from 2009!!!

The App Store screws up every now and then. Most of the time it works as expected, but sometimes it screws up and your app doesn't get on the new release list. It usually gets fixed after a while and starts working as intended again.

So what I've gathered is that most of the time it will show up as new, but sometimes it won't? Not very comforting =/ but I guess that's the best answer out there. Hope this thread stays open, I'm sure the answer will change and people have studies.

From reading that forum, they seem to come to a conclusion that the length of time it's held makes a difference, but my recent experience with our game counteracts this. Looking at AppAnnie data, we were never featured in New around our release date, but towards the top of overall paid games in GameCenter and Family games (the listings were not alphabetical.) Again, we held the game for 6 weeks, and were never listed in new on release. So it goes back to Mr Blue's quote, I guess sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. x.x

We have another game coming out in June, I'll keep a close eye on the app charts for that one as the iPad version is approved and waiting for release, but the iPhone version is still waiting to be submitted. If anyone else would volunteer data (whether you hold or not, what the outcome is) it would be very appreciated. Thanks everyone!

[lolzappan]

From what I understand the app will show under New on the first day you release it but the effectiveness of new as I understand it is very limited anyway as it gets pushed down with all the other new apps launched on that day (and the next).

[Synaptic Wave]

Hi, I've found some threads on iPhoneDevSDK.
This one says that the approval date is always the release date. So if you release an app a week after approval you don't get into New&Noteworthy section. The last message is from yesterday.

Here someone says that everything's fine and someone proves that the bug has spoiled their promotion. Anyway, they've come to a weird technique. They say you should set release date to a date in distant future. And when you get approved you should change it immediately.

I'm confused now

[MelissaMarie]

Case Study Update: So looking at our App Annie data for our latest app, which was held about a week before developer release, the app was featured in new 2 days after it's release. The App (the tossing dead) was released on Tuesday May 1, and featured in new in both of its sub categories on Thursday.

I've been hearing rumors that apple does editorial on Thursdays, perhaps this is a clue? Is New editorial at all?

[jDun1212]

Could you speak more about the editorial that apple does on Thrusdays?