Spotify’s iPhone app delayed… and it’s not Apple’s fault (for once)

It’s now nearly a week since Apple revealed that it had approved the hotly anticipated iPhone app from music streaming service Spotify. Apps are sometimes delayed, but that’s usually because of Apple’s approval process. In this case the app’s ready to go – so where is it?

Conspiracy theorists would probably thing that it was down to Apple holding the app back for some reason. Maybe Apple’s upcoming ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll But I Like It’ event on 9th September was going to unveil an iTunes streaming service that would leave Spotify in the dust? Well, that’s possible but unlikely – the truth appears to be far more down to earth.

Spotify’s Twitter account has let slip some details about what’s holding things up. There’s understandably lots of interest in the app – it will not only stream music over the internet but allow you to sync music from Spotify’s huge library to temporarily store on your phone for use on the go.

Responding to tweets from an anxious fan, the Swedish startup writes:

“It’s coming, there’s tons of interest so we want to make sure we can deliver the best service possible”.

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and:

“No date to share yet unfortunately but it shouldn’t be weeks. Just a little more patience, it will be worth it. :)”

So, what can we confidently assume from this? Spotify is holding its iPhone app back while it improves its backend systems and a release is due within (hopefully) a week. Let’s face it – there’s likely to be a huge surge in demand on Spotify’s servers one the mobile service goes live, especially if (as expected) versions for other mobile platforms like Android and Symbian arrive at the same time. Spending a little extra time sorting out extra server capacity is definitely worth it.

So, don’t hold your breath for a release before the weekend, but once it arrives it should at least be stable. We asked Spotify for an official comment but we’ve yet to receive one.