Hello World. I asked @MysteryCocunut to add me to the iDevBlogADay waiting list back on July 29th, 2010 and now 5 months later, it's finally my turn! This is my first official iDevBlogADay post, so I'll start by introducing myself.
I am Dave Wood, a 36 year old developer who lives & works north of Toronto in Canada. I work full time, and develop for iOS in my spare time. Since the start of the App Store, I've released 7 apps (3 of which are games) under the Cerebral Gardens brand, and I've also built several apps for clients, some of which are for high profile companies and for public use in the App Store (eg. Cruze), others for use by small companies and only for use by their employee's. I'll be the first to admit that some of the apps I've built haven't been the greatest. Some were created as a learning tool (eg. Ditto - Objective-C), others to test a technology (eg. Carpe Diem - Push Notifications/Scalability), sometimes a game seems like it will be a tonne of fun during design but flops when released because it's missing a feature (eg. Wings - no single player option). Each app, good or bad is a learning experience and moves me closer to completing a masterpiece (I hope).
I am someone who loves to learn, but will then turn around and share that knowledge with others. I also like to throw unusual ideas into a pot and see where they go. So for my iDevBlogADay posts, I'm going to present a mixture of educational posts (from beginner to advanced), and posts intended to elicit a discussion. Please let me know if you have anything you'd like to learn about or discuss.
Today I'd like to discuss Apple's recent policy change with regard to app name squatting. If you're unaware of the policy, Apple says you must now submit your binary for an app within 120 days of reserving the name. If you don't submit a binary, you'll receive warning emails with 30 and 7 days remaining in your 120 day grace period. At the end of 120 days, if you still haven't submitted a binary, the app is automatically deleted by iTunes Connect and you're forbidden from using that app name again in the future.
The idea behind this policy is likely to prevent the ridiculous name squatting environment the exists with domain names. Personally, I don't believe that Apple has come up with a great solution to the problem though. 120 days isn't long enough for an independent developer working in his/her spare time to create a good quality app. And there's a known work around anyway1, that just forces you to do an extra 5-10 minutes work per name to reset the 120 day count. So what has been accomplished? It makes it awkward for someone to register a tonne of app names and just sit on them, since the 5-10 minutes add up fast.
I propose that there is a better solution. Instead of an arbitrary time period to submit an app, why doesn't Apple limit each developer account (that is, per $99 fee), to an arbitrary number of incomplete apps. Lets say 10 for example. In my hypothetical world, you can squat on up to 10 names for each $99/year. Making app names cost about $10/year, similar to domains. But the domain ecosystem is a disaster you say. Well the difference is that with domains, there's a whois database. Everyone can find out who has registered a domain, and contact them in order to generate a sale. There is no current way to find out who has reserved an app name, and thus no way to buy the rights to a name. Which means, there is no market for buying and selling app names; crazy domain name ecosystem averted. The only people reserving app names will be those who plan to use them.
I'm sure there are problems with my proposal also, or that you have an even better solution. Please add to this discussion here.
1 Rename the app that's about to expire to some gibberish, and recreate a new app with a new SKU and the original name you're reserving. Credit: Daniel Jalkut
This post is part of iDevBlogADay, a group of indie iPhone development blogs featuring two posts per day. You can keep up with iDevBlogADay through the web site, RSS feed, or Twitter.
Tags: iOS, Apple, Discussion, App Store, iDevBlogADay
Thanks! I like the idea of a one-time fee. Not sure it would combat the spam apps though. I think that's a different problem altogether (maybe a future post). Apple intentionally created a very low barrier to entry for iOS development, in order to build a huge base of developers, and the app spammers are the result.
I fell pray to this problem recently. Part of the issue to me is that in order to test certain functionality (Game Center for instance) you HAVE to create an app in iTC. Had this not been a problem I might not have bothered for a few months more (perhaps risking my app name, but not a biggie).
Your solution sounds interesting... the only problem would be if someone opened up an app name black market online. 
But it would still make it somewhat prohibitive and is a good first step. A bit of a bummer for the big boys who may typically work on several titles at once though.
Another option: Apple detecting activity on the app as would be generated by active testing such as Game Center, notifications, that sort of thing. That's a dead giveaway that it's not name squatting.
Also: accounts with only one incomplete app have that app never expire (or expire in a year). That should relieve the pain for indie developers at least at little risk of name squatting.
How about some sort of renewal mechanism. Maybe if when your 120 days runs out you can request (or even pay for) a renewal.
I actually thought about an about an online black market for app names, but decided to ignore it for the blog entry. Mainly because anyone investing money on that is crazy. Apple has full control of the App Store, iTunes Connect etc, so they can (and will) just change something (rules or tech) to kill your entire investment and shut you down. There are always ways around Apple's rules etc, you can use them for a bit, but trying to build a business using a workaround is a sure fire way to lose money. "Don't tick Apple off" should be a founding rule of any business based on Apple.
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Per App Fee
Great first iDevBlogADay post! I would welcome Apple charging devs a nominal fee per app registered. Something like a $10-$20 one-time fee. I think this would also help in combating the spam apps.