Apple usually locks down iTunes Connect for developers during the week of Christmas. This procedure known as “lockdown” doesn’t allow developers to submit updates for their apps and perform price changes, as they’re basically forced to stay out of iTunes Connect, the system underlying the App Store distribution.
According to a rumor published by 148apps, Apple is planning an additional lockdown this year during the week of Thanksgiving. The lockdown is admittedly a problem for developers who need to submit fixes to their applications, but it’s also a great marketing opportunity as charts and top apps are not updated either during the period. If you’re there on the first day, you’ll stay there for the whole week.
Heard through the grapevine that in addition to the now traditional lock down of the App Store during the week of Christmas, this year we’ll see an additional lock down the week of Thanksgiving. These are traditionally very busy weeks for the App Store. And this lockdown presents some interesting challenges to app marketing.
AppAdvice also goes on to say Apple may take advantage of these two lockdowns to introduce new App Store features and subcategories. While I’m a little bit skeptical we’ll see changes during the alleged Thanksgiving lockdown, Christmas may be a good spot to introduce a less broken App Store and new features for customers. Maybe they won’t launch a new Account view, but we all know how Apple rolls.
