"Android Market" opened but not 'open' enough for some frustrated international developers
Submitted by george on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 08:49
A few days ago, Android Market launched but not open to the international developers that are looking for ways to Publish their applications channeled via agents. Such agents could help since they will be in a jurisdiction where Google allows stocking onto their market.
Discussion by developers considering alternative ways to stock onto Market
Such developers should understand first all the tax implications with royalties and licensing rights before venturing into such dangerous waters.
"A transaction that does not constitute a sale or exchange because not all substantial rights have been transferred will be classified as a license generating royalty income."
It is recommended to consult professional advise and consider setting up a company in a jurisdiction where the Market is open.
An alternative for such developers would be to stock onto SlideME Marketplace for global distribution without any such limitations.
Detailed announcement:
SlideME Launched Support for Paid Applications with SAM
SlideME offers products, services and experience that help promote small Android developers and their creative efforts, without locking them into any closed standards. We are focused on addressing and helping developers gain quality assurance (QA) and financial rewards in this exciting multi-billion dollar industry.
What is SAM - SlideME Application Manager? SAM is a mobile client for the Android mobile platform that allows a user to easily discover applications on the Marketplace. Users will be able to download and install or even purchase securely (SlideGuard) without entering any sensitive information(such as credit card information) from within their handset.
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There is clearly a great demand for an intermediary on the Android Market. Thousands of non-US/UK developers are looking for a solution to submit paid applications. Forgive me for being rude, but SlideMe in it's current state doesn't look promising. Not too many end-users will go through a process of looking for, downloading and installing SAM and creating an account. With a small user audience, the developers are also reluctant to come in significant numbers. It's a catch-22. I'd be happy to be wrong about this, but this is how it looks from where I sit.
You could become an agent for those unfortunate developers who are not currently allowed to join the party. The demand for such service will probably be there for a few years. Google Checkout is in the state of "coming soon" to Canada since 2006. For some reason, Google doesn't make significant progress in this area.
Your comment would be greatly appreciated.
It probably helps to
It probably helps to understand the background of SlideME. Based on the history of the mobile industry, we knew that there would be a bunch of big players fighting it out in the App Store space. We started SlideME with a focus on the individual developer in mind, realizing these developers would be a secondary concern to the bigger players. We fill a niche.
So we are really there more as enablers of the developers. Developers now have a place to stock applications, a place where they can be paid. We definitely understand the catch-22 situation; developers have directly mentioned this on the Android lists.
The international developers can use the SlideME Marketplace and help promote their apps (and SlideME) to users or they can wait while competitor products lock them out altogether. Developers need to get involved, rather than waiting for us to do it for them.
In fact, when the Google Android Market launched, Google left out the general developer community. A lot of developers mentioned to the user community about SlideME and we saw a large spike in traffic over the course of the first week. So we know that word-of-mouth from developers plays a very important part.
We have also recently launched an initiative to get the word out to the user community about applications, but we expect developers will need to support us to make this work.