Want your company to develop for iPhones? Get in the Yellow Pages!

Have you tried registering for the iPhone developer programme? I have. Today I registered my company for the scheme and was told there would be a verification process and it would take about a week. I called Apple to see what this process was. Your company goes through the following:

1. Your e-mail address is checked against the company name
2. Your e-mail address is checked against the web address you gave
3. Your website is checked to make sure you exist
4. Apple then check you are in the Yellow Pages

What! Check that I'm in the Yellow Pages!

I understand the need to check that the company actually exists but how many internet companies are registered to a physical address and listed in the Yellow Pages? Most "companies" will be a small-time operation and not actually registered. If you fail the "Yell check", you have to provide a certificate of incorporation. How many internet companies have that?

All that said, Apple have done well to make the app store a place for professionally-created programs. They've taken it onto themselves to test and approve all apps which is a significant overhead, but the store is better for it.

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