Does Apple Love Developers?

The “Circle with Grandma” app has such a cute app icon. That would not have happened if Apple didn’t reject the first one. Originally, it used the grandma emoji. Apple has been cracking down on emoji use. It sound silly and it can frustrating for developers, but it’s understandable. Apple doesn’t want you using their emoji icons as clipart.

Once the standard was set for the “Circles with Grandma” app icon, the other app icons had to look just as good. I’m really pleased with icons for “Cabling” and “Wrapping”. It’s as if I’m building a portfolio of apps. The 10-year project is looking good.

While more extreme, and played out over a longer timeframe, the app rejection of “Wrapping” had a similar outcome. With no other options to salvage my app, not if I wanted to launch it on the Mac App Store, I was forced to learn Swift. Well, I was somewhat familiar with the programming language, but I had to significantly improve my skills. Now, not only is “Wrapping” a much better app, more possibilities are available for future apps.

That was the main reason for creating the “Wrapping” app. If I’m continuing on this journey, I’ll need some way to mass produce these apps. The “Wrapping” app does just that. It allows me to take a Tumult Hype project and export it to Xcode. Instead of wasting time mindlessly click buttons and manually resizing app icons, I just fill in a few fields and click a few buttons – BOOM!

Since the “Wrapping” app is so valuable to me, maybe it will be valuable to you too. That’s why I published it to the Mac App Store. I was looking for a tool like this, but I couldn’t find it. So, I built it! That’s why the 10-year project is so important. I don’t know if I could have build something this complex 5-10 years ago. It didn’t even occur to me that I could. If this journey continues, apps 98, 99 and 100 might be amazing!

Yes, the 10-year plan certainly has a goal of financial success, but there’s also the aspect of self-improvement. This journey is changing me, I think for the better.

But getting back to the main question here, does Apple love developers? While Apple needs to upgrade the Mac Mini, my experience as an app developer has been a good one overall. Apple has to protect their users. That’s why the Apple ecosystem is so attractive. It’s because it has rules and standards. Therefore, those rules and standards have to be enforced.

My problem is that I think Apple should make development more accessible. When an app is rejected, Apple is not letting you down easy. It feels more like getting a parking ticket. Here’s your citation! Apple didn’t help with getting the “Wrapping” app up-to-code. Fortunately, that’s what the Internet is for. A lot… A LOT… of web searches occurred in the past week. Most of the results pointed to Stack Overflow. While many developers may work alone, they’re not alone in their problems.

Thinking of the problem from Apple’s perspective, it is quite apparent how difficult it would be to manage the app stores. That leads me to believe that Apple does appreciate developers. Yet, the simple fact is that there are a lot of developers. While Apple may have lots of love for developers, that affection is divided thousands of times.