With iOS 5 due for public release tomorrow (Oct-12) I guess the App Store reviewers will be working late today to clear the backlog from all of the iOS developers who have submitted iOS 5 app updates over the last week. I actually saw the status of an App go from “Waiting For Review” to “In Review” to “Processing for App Store” to “Ready for Sale” in just 40 minutes today.

This does make me wonder if Apple can turn around App reviews this quickly during the run up to a major release why can’t it always be this fast? Maybe they have more reviewers working this week or they are applying some lighter checks for simple updates? Of course not everybody is seeing such a quick response though Apple is claiming they have reviewed 99% of all new App and App Updates submitted in the last 7 days.

App Store Status Notifications

One quick tip if you don’t already have the iTunes Connect Mobile app installed go grab it today. It is a Universal app so it will work fine on both the iPhone and iPad. You need to login with your iTunes Connect Apple developer account. Whilst it does provide a pretty view of your App sales that is not why I recommend it. The main reason to use it is that it will deliver iOS notifications to your device any time the status of an App changes as it works it’s way through the App Store submission process. This saves a lot of trips and refreshes of the iTunes Connect web site to see if your App is in review yet.

iTunes 10.5

One final quick note. Apple has just posted the public version of iTunes 10.5. If you have been using one of the iTunes betas and are already tired of being warned it will expire you will want to download and install the official version from apple.com/itunes.