It has been a trend to shut down the App Store Connect for about a week during the holidays so that the App Store staff members get their time off from work and enjoy the holiday season. This year as well, the App Store Connect will not be available from December 23 to December 27, 2020. While the App Store Connect will be unavailable, the company will not be accepting new apps or any updates on the apps.
This means that the developers need to submit all the price changes or any new app submissions before the announced dates if they want to offer discounts or any new app content during the December holidays. It has been a practice with the developers that they offer discounts and begins sales promotions before the App Store closes for the holidays. The sales offers will then be available till the App Store reopens in the month of December, 2020.
During the holiday period, the submissions will remain closed, but the developers will still be able to access the App Store Connect tools. The early intimation has been given so that the developers get ample time to submit their respective offers or submissions that have to be run during the holidays.
A statement by Apple on Monday has mentioned that any changes need to be submitted in advance. The App Store was launched in July 2008 with 500 applications in the initial stage. Currently the store features about 1.8 million apps and had peaked 2.2 million in 2017. The number had declined as Apple had started to remove some of the apps as many of them did not function properly or did not follow the guidelines laid out by the company. The digital distribution program is maintained by Apple Inc for mobile apps on the iPad OS and iOS. The company has claimed that it has paid $155 billion to its developers and helped create new jobs in the app economy.
Photo Credits: Good barber