Apple's AppStore is Bizarre

I don't want to bash Apple. I'm an Apple addict! Love every one of their products and have had nothing but good things to say about their quality and attention to design and detail. But... the AppStore process is a strange animal.

Our first iPhone application for FX360 was submitted on May 15th. I declared the 'release date' to be the 18th in the submission. I checked the iTunesConnect environment 2 to 3 times a day, everyday, to see if it was approved. After the holiday weekend, Tim from the office pinged me in the morning to ask if the app was live because he was looking at it on a review site. I logged into iTunesConnect and it was approved and live! Great, but, how about a notice that it was approved? An email... a text... a message on my phone... nadda.

That seems like a strange policy to me. Apple must realize that many developers are holding their breath for their apps to be approved. I'm not sure why they are taking a no contact approach on the approval, but it doesn't seem like a very well thought through User Experience on their part. Oh well. Part of doing business with them I guess.