iTunes App Store: Does a major version upgrade = longer approval queue time?

Question

I'm wondering if anyone has insight into this... when releasing an update of an iPhone application, should I expect the approval process to take longer if I submit something that's declared as a major version update (as compared to a minor version)?

Last time around (about the time the big Facebook-update was released) our wait time for a minor version review was 21 days (16 working days).

Answer 1

The App store is notoriously secretive, so any answers you get here will be anecdotal. I have found (after over 50 releases for different apps) that not much you can do will help estimate how long an approval will take. I have released a bug-fix update with 1 change that took 6 weeks. I have released major app updates that took 1 week.

That said, I think you can help minimize your waiting time by:
1) Providing good release notes to tell the reviewer (and the customer) what has changed.
2) Making sure you dot your i's and cross your t's. Dont expect to get away with any thing, even if you already have in a previous version

Answer 2

I'd be extremely surprised if your version number made any difference in the review time. App version numbers are completely arbitrary and merely provided for your own tracking purposes.

Answer 3

The review time is usually shorter if your version number ends with 7.