iTunes Connect 3.0 review

According to Apple, iTunes Connect 3.0 has been completely revamped. With that comes the ability to better, more easily manage your products. This includes having access to the music, movies, TV shows, and books you've made available on the iTunes Store. Prior to this update, users were only able to manage their apps and books. So, how well does it work?

Just like its web counter-part, iTunes Connect 3.0 has a variety of new charts and graphs providing its users with visually pleasing performance and trending data. Users can also browse reviews for their products.

Another great feature are the push notifications. Now, its even easier to keep informed about the status of your products. With push notifications, you'll be able to keep close tabs on your content while it's in review.

All-in-all, this update includes some significant improvements and enhancements. Especially, when you consider it's only been updated nine times since its initial release on June 9, 2010. Coupled with the fact that its last update (October 15, 2012) only addressed minor bug fixes and added support for the iPhone 5.

Will it replace the web-based iTunes Connect portal? I don't think so. The web-based portal has much more functionality. For instance, in the portal, you can set a specific time period for your data analysis. With the app, you're limited to only a small number of time periods (1D, 1W, 2W, 5W, 13W, 26W). For some, this may not be an issue, but for me, it's limiting.

There's also no way to see the breakdown for your products based on Platform, Category, or Content Type. You're limited to Territory and Transaction Type. Another missing feature is having the ability to switch between line charts and bar graphs. Personally, I prefer the bar graphs, but sadly, these didn't make it into the app.

These are just a few things I wish made it into 3.0. My fear is that this app, historically, has seen only a few updates. My suspicion is that we won't see another one for quite some time. At least not one that adds more functionality. I hope I'm wrong.

In any case… is this app worth the download? Yes. I feel like it's a step in the right direction, and it will certainly help us developers on the go. But, as a replacement for the web-based portal, which is what I was hoping it would be, I think it fell a little short.