So I just got this letter from Apple, first let me say that this is great news since I didn’t even know my membership was up so it’s great to hear I have a few more months before I have to pay. With that said the last sentence tells me something about the iTunes store I did not previously know.
Dear Ryan Detzel,
It has been almost a year since you enrolled in the iPhone Developer Program and helped to make the App Store a phenomenal success.
In appreciation of your participation in the program during the beta period, the length of your original program term and your iTunes Connect contract(s) will be extended to
July 11, 2009—one year from the opening of the App Store. We will contact you soon with more details and instructions about this extension.
Beginning in May, a full 60 days prior to your new Program expiration date, you will be able to renew your iPhone Developer Program which also automatically renews your existing iTunes contracts.
Best regards,iPhone Developer Program
The part in bold above is the part that is new to me and it took me by surprise at first but I guess it kind of makes sense. When you create a certificate for an app is has an expiration date which I think is a year in the future. For almost a year now I had no idea what that did or what they used it for so I ignored it but now it makes sense. Your apps will expire every year unless you renew your iPhone App Developer Membership and thus they will be removed from the app store.
This does make sense though since you need a membership to change and upload apps, Apple doesn’t want apps sitting around that are not going to get fixed or updated. Why will this help? Well, there was a flood of “wanna be” programmers that hit the app store when they read about all the money that was to be made but as they soon learned it was not as easy as creating another tip calculator of fart program. Once these “developers” get their renewal contracts I’m pretty sure they will not be forking over the membership fee if their app didn’t sell enough to cover the cost(currently $99 for individuals, $299 for corporations) of the membership. So, in about 9-10 months we should see a large drop off of bad apps from the iTunes iPhone App Store and I cant’ wait because it’s very painful to try and find decent apps when they are surrounded with so much clutter.
Ryan - GREAT INFO! Drop us a call to let us know the ramifications. Keep up the good work.
gb