Apple activates revamped iTunes Connect Web portal with design overhaul, new tools

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited September 2014
Apple on Thursday launched an updated version of its iTunes Connect developer Web portal, with a design overhaul coming alongside deeper data management features for launching, selling and managing content on the iTunes Store.




The new online portal carries over the same app management assets familiar to developers, while polishing the overall presentation and updating a number of tools important for tracking user engagement. Apple first demoed the new iTunes Connect at WWDC in June.

As noted by Apple, the latest iTunes Connect version comes with an updated My Apps section for basic app management, a new Resources and Help pane for solving payments and distribution issues and tweaks to the Users and Roles area dedicated to managing Sandbox test users.

As seen in the screenshots, Apple completely revamped the website's design to bring the dev portal more in line with the iOS-inspired iCloud Web client that rolled out last year. Aside from "flat" iconography, the user interface has been tweaked with cleaner drop-down menus and graphical assets.



The new iTunes Connect portal brings the Web interface up to speed with the iOS app version released in May. The mobile iteration also sports a design based on iOS 7 and includes basic access to critical app management tools.

Developers with proper credentials can access the new iTunes Connect portal now.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member

    Seems a lot slower to load and less readable than the old website. Hopefully these issues will be addressed though.

  • Reply 2 of 8

    iTunes Connect seems to be completely offline now!!! :\

  • Reply 3 of 8
    dacloodacloo Posts: 890member
    Horrible change. Just checked it and it's a huge regression on UX and speed.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    And they still haven't added the ability to get the number of page views for the appstore page. So incredibly basic, it's nuts not to have it. But then none of the Android stores have it either. If I get 100 page views/day and sell only 2 units, something's wrong! If I sell, 20, I must be doing something right.

    4 years ago, I was speaking with the director of the Appstore and asked about getting that added, and he said "What? We don't do that already? That makes so much sense!" (followed by a bunch of furious note-taking.

    Meh.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    nasseraenasserae Posts: 3,167member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by distantsuns View Post



    And they still haven't added the ability to get the number of page views for the appstore page. So incredibly basic, it's nuts not to have it. But then none of the Android stores have it either. If I get 100 page views/day and sell only 2 units, something's wrong! If I sell, 20, I must be doing something right.



    4 years ago, I was speaking with the director of the Appstore and asked about getting that added, and he said "What? We don't do that already? That makes so much sense!" (followed by a bunch of furious note-taking.



    Meh.

     

    During WWDC they said this feature will come when iOS 8 is released.

  • Reply 6 of 8
    nasseraenasserae Posts: 3,167member

    Any one using AppViz 2 app having trouble downloading the reports today? Maybe it's tied to this update?!

  • Reply 7 of 8

    I can't seem to select which team to use before it logs me in to one of my teams. Is there anywhere that I can change teams? If there is, I cannot find it for the life of me.

  • Reply 8 of 8
    This isn't just for app developers. Those who're publishing through the iBookstore will find these changes apply to their iTunes Connect account too.

    One bit of good news. Apple has finally clarified on their resources page when users should download iTunes Connect (for OS X 10.6 and later) or 3.1 (apparently only 10.9 and later). Version 3.0 was so dreadful, even under 10.9, it would crash on my Mac mini after just entering two fields of data.

    I do have one gripe. I wish Apple would put the publishing apps and documentation on its resources page into the app store and IBookstore and set them up to auto-update. Having to check for updates gets to be a pain.

    One major change in the iBookstore is most needed. With assistance from Apple, Adobe InDesign now exports excellent, iBooks-compatible reflowable (iPhone and fixed-format epub (iPad). Unfortunately, the iBookstore hasn't caught up with the marketplace. There needs to be one page for both versions of an ebook. Authors should be able to upload both versions at the same time with the same metadata (perhaps with differing ISBNs). Readers should be able to buy both in the same purchase and use either or both, depending on their needs.

    FYI: Exported from InDesign, fixed format epub looks virtually identical to the printed version. That makes it great for complex books, books with extensive graphics, textbooks, cookbooks, and children's story books. The pages break at the same point and graphics are positioned identically. It's amazing!

    The ease of exporting a fixed-format epub from InDesign is one of the main advantages Apple has over Amazon right now. Create an attractive print book in InDesign, and you can export that book as an equally attractive ebook that looks identical. It's an export that takes just a couple of minutes. And, although you'll lose much of the special formatting, you can also export that same document as a reflowable epub just as easily.

    Those who've worked in publishing know just how marvelous it is to have to keep up only one text for a book. Each fix and each revision needs to be done only once.

    --Michael W. Perry, Inkling Books
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