Apple has made a modus operandi out of calling for app submissions, especially after they launch an important OS's GM build. The company did launch tvOS, so the submission request was to be expected.
This time, though, developers received a very short time span to do their code magic, as no further than next week Apple TV is scheduled to receive a revamped App Store. Apple mentions that the tvOS App Store is bound to see the screens soon, because during the following week the first batch of Apple TVs will be delivered.
Apple drafted a series of guides for developers who want to submit tvOS apps.
"Updating [their] version of Xcode to the latest release of Xcode 7, which includes the latest tvOS SDK, and downloading and installing tvOS GM seed on an Apple TV Developer Kit," is the first step on the path to create tvOS apps, the Cupertino-based company said. This means that software creators will use Xcode 7.1 GM for their work.
The company recommends that coders get consistent feedback from beta testers, if available. Right now, this only applies to coders who got their dev kit through TestFlight.
Other guidelines that assist app creation refer to the proper optimization of app icons and their design, how to efficiently prepare pages for products or how to correctly set a release date.
In the updated App Store Review Guidelines, Apple underlines that all destined-for-Apple TV apps should be Siri-remote compatible, otherwise they will not be taken into consideration.
At the beginning of the week, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that Apple TV will be purchasable from Oct. 26 and that Apple TV boxes will start their way to customers' living rooms by the end of next week.
Apple TV is at its fourth generation and costs $149 for a 32GB model. For the bigger, 64GB variant, Apple fans will be set back $199.
Apple already faces strong competition from Google and Amazon, both of which have developed TV dongles which open possibilities for developers. However, the attraction of creating an app for tvOS is remarkably strong, due to the consistency of creating across iOS and the significant (possible) monetary payoff.
