I'm looking for a general idea of how long people are sitting in the queue once they have submitted.
Actual times from people who have submitted and been approved. I understand its subjective and depends on the app i'm just looking for some real world examples.
It completely depends: the actual process is hidden in secrecy, of course, but most people seem to be waiting anywhere from two weeks to two months for the initial submission to be approved. Updates seem to take less time, but can still take a week or two to make it through.
The unsatisfactory answer is "it depends" — on your app, on the phase of the moon, and who knows what else. Sorry!
After your app is submitted to the App Store for review, a robed monk is there to recieve it when it arrives. The monk ushers your app to the Shrine of Acceptance, where it will begin its journey.
Each journey is unique and special, just like your app, and while the journey has been rumoured to include attacks of security ninjas, IP-samurai, and even a final battle with Steve himself, no-one's quite sure what happens. The best you can do is sit back and wait.
I submitted my first app around the middle of Sept and it took just under 3 weeks to hear back from Apple. In my particular case, I had to make a small update to be in compliance with Apple's guidelines and then resubmit - so I don't know if things go faster if there are no issues with the app. FWIW - the app is a basic budgeting app, so it isn't complex to review...I assume an advanced application may take a bit longer to review.
Ten days for my first app. But as others say, there is great variance.
I sumbitted my first app at the end of July, and it appears on August 15th, so it was about 2 weeks. Updates to the app seem to take a week or so.
As the other answers suggest, the approval time frame is quite variable. My own apps/updates have been approved as quickly as 5 days and as slowly as 25 days.
I asked this question because i had just submitted an app and wanted to get an idea of how long. To add my experience to the thread it took 6 days from submission to app store.
My first app took 7 days to get rejected because I left the demo/test account info blank. This was not applicable to my app so I don't know what the problem was. I resubmitted and was accepted in 7 more days.
Currently, the wait time seems to be about three days. I have no evidence to back it up, but I suspect the category you're submitting to can affect the time it takes to get approved.
Mine took 6 days. I posted it last Saturday, August 29th, in the afternoon. It was available on the app store late today, Friday, September 4th.
It's a simple app. Creates flash cards from the people in your address book; saves your score between sessions. No network; no motion sensing; simple. So perhaps that had something to do with it's quick approval (?).
NOTE: I posted it with an August 29th availability date, because I wanted them to put it into the store ASAP. However, it posted with that as the "release data" which means it immediately sorted below other apps with "september 4th" release dates -- so no one will see it in the "lifestyle" sorted by "release date" screen. Kind of a bummer. I'll be more careful with the next update.
Sales pitch:
FaceNames helps you learn the names and faces of the people in your address book.
It took us about 3 weeks, but we were submitting during the initial rush, and our app was a bit complex.
This is weird, but my app status has changed from "Waiting for Review" to "In Review," and it's been that way for more than a day. It usually only takes about 5 hours from "In Review" to "Ready for Sale."
I've recently had to apps approved, and here are the timelines:
App1:
App2:
Note that on the second one, Thanksgiving holiday was in there, so I'm sure that delayed the transition from "In Review" to "Ready for Sale".
i submitted one app in 14th june 2010, still waiting. the status is still 'waiting for review', 21th june i submitted another 4. Lets see how long it will take to accept or reject my apps. The policy is really boring. But what to say the key is in their hand. Apple is doing one kind of monopoly like Microsoft...
yesterday my first app approved. It took total 9 days. Lets see what happen for my next apps...
I submitted my app originally on June 25th. Apple was showing 95% of all new submitted apps were reviewed within 7 days (http://developer.apple.com/iphone/news/archives/2010/june/). True to their word, 7 days (minus 2 hours) later, July2, Apple took just 3 hours to find the 512 dpi image contained an image of my app photoshopped onto an Apple image of an iPhone. And with the app's rejection I learned you can't do that.
Within hours I had removed the iPhone and resubmitted it. 7 days later (minus 3 hours), Apple moved it into review. I was happy about this as Apple is currently showing only 85% of new apps reviewed in 7 days.
My app is somewhat complex as it has Facebook, Twitter and email connection. So, I'm curious/anxious to see how long it will take for approval. One thing against fast approval is that I submitted it on Friday. So, I'm assuming the weekend will add to unproductive days to the cycle.
I've seen them go within a week, and I've had first-day rejections too. Depends on the traffic.
It depends on the case load of the App Store at the moment. My application that I submitted right before July 4th took about 12 days from submission to store. This is probably because they stop reviewing on the 4th, and the monday afterwords and had a lot of backup reviews. My friends have told me it took them as little as 2 days, and updates should go through even quicker.
My first app took about 9 days.
Does anyone know what happens if, while "waiting for review", I go in and edit certain values like:
Does the app "stay in line", or jump back to "the end of the line" in the review process?
One July 5 I submitted my first app to the app store. It went into 'Review' phase on July 12th at 2:30p, stayed there until about 11:00am on the 13th. So 8 days for my first new app submission.
I believe it would take 7 days for changing status from "Waiting for Review" to "In Review", from "In Review" to "Rejected" or "Ready for Sale" less than a day. (Hope so, look like there are apps more than days :) )
In some cases, such as Xmas, the review took much longer, from 2 weeks to months.
It varies a lot, but I've seen approvals between two days and three weeks. It seems that the queue grows immediately before major events and product releases, but that relevant apps may be expedited (eg. iPad release, WWDC).
Submitted my App on August 28, 2010 20:14 Approved and Ready for Sale September 06, 2010 16:40 (Labor Day)