From the side of a developer, there are a lot of unknowns with the AppStore submission process. Basically, you submit your application (or update) and… it sits in review. Here’s the information I’ve been able to gather based on my experience and trolling message boards with other developers.
Please note that when I say ‘work day’ I’m talking about Monday->Friday. Saturday sees some action from the AppStore, but generally there do not appear to be updates on Sundays and holidays.
Duration
Many of us believe that the submission load is substantially larger than Apple had budgeted for. In late July, the reported time from submission to acceptance was approximately 5 work days. By mid-August (when I submitted my applications and updates), it had moved to about 7 work days. People submitting now (late August submissions) are reporting 10 work day times. I currently have an update I submitted 7 days ago and am waiting for a report on. I’ll update this section as I get additional data from my own submissions and other developers.
Note that new applications and updates appear to be subject to idential queue times.
You will hear nothing from submission time until they have done a first review. Then, you may get an email stating that it is Ready For Sale, and within a half a work day it will transition to that state in iTunes Connect and slowly roll out across the various countries’ AppStores. Alternatively, you will get a rejection e-mail and within one to two work days it will be followed up an e-mail detailing why your application was rejected. People who’ve had an application rejected have reported a fairly tight loop on updates and getting more feedback.
Updating your app’s information and price
If you perform an update to screen shots, large icon, price, or text, that will be reflected in approximately a half a work day on the US AppStore (I don’t know if this is different for overseas developers). It then takes about another half work day to propagate to the other countries’ AppStores.
Tips & Warnings
If you make an update, you can update the large application icon and submit that along with the app. However, do not update your screenshots or text! If you do, that information will be reflected into your current posting, and you will end up with irate users (this happened to me with WiFinder).
