My way to Motorola SHOP4APPS or "Where is the money?"

So, yes, the day before yesterday an Event happened - my PDFMyWeb Pro Android application was finally missed in Motorola's SHOP4APPS. And this is after 7 months of torment, more than a dozen attempts to post it there, heaps of wasted time and nerves. But, in general, it happened and now I will try to make a small analysis of whether the game was worth the candle.

Start

It all started a long time ago (oddly enough, but almost all the posts about getting to various sites for the sale of mobile applications start with this phrase for me. I just never had a super, as far as I remember).

Last December, the first version of my SMSMyFile utility for sharing files via SMS was released, and after successfully entering the Android Market it was decided to conquer new horizons. One of these "new" was the Motorola market Shop4Apps. There was very little information about him (mainly because Motorola has a strange policy about new products - they are available only by pre-registration, accepting an NDA heap and finding information about something on their website is not so easy), but I found how to register in their program for developers. Registering there, I tell you, is not so simple. Not only do they ask out a bunch of personal information, almost the blood type and the nickname of the wife’s beloved brother’s dog, so they also need a valid PayPal account, without which you have to accept paid applications (and I’ve understood ) out of the question. What is it for? I could post free software without PayPal, but you can’t.
')
But okay, PayPal is a pleasant thing (I already wrote earlier how to get an American PayPal account), so the registration went more or less smoothly (but I remember the answer that my information was reviewed and allowed into the Developer Program, I waited for a week and a half, even then it terribly enraged me, and, as it turned out, not without reason).

In general, after a week and a half, I finally got access to resources for developers. From the pleasant moments, it can only be noted that the specifications of all Motorola phones are available for developers, including those that are only planned for release, as well as add-ons for the Android emulator for all devices from Motorola.

First damn lump

But okay, having played enough with the skins for the emulator, I decided, nevertheless, to get down to business and post the application at least just “to see” how it works and whether that makes sense.

The application submission process was no less lengthy and tedious than registration. So, what they want:

• Installer (.apk file)
• Specify the type of application (program, widget or program + widget)
• Application name in English (restriction - from 3 to 50 characters)
• Address of the o_O support web page
• Full text description (restriction - not less than 200 and not more than 400 characters, i.e. simply “My program does such-and-such a thing” cannot be written)
• Short description (restriction - not less than 100 and not more than 200 characters)
• Application Category (3 categories are required)
• List of supported languages
• Specify the list of sites for which the application will be available
• For each site indicate the price
• Specify the types of devices for which the application will be available (you can choose all types or checkboxes separately CLIQ and BACKFLIP - apparently, only these devices have their market available)
• Specify where the o_O screenshots will be taken from (only one option is available for some reason, which indicates that the screenshots will be loaded when the application is clicked ... I did not understand the deep meaning of this option)
• Once again for each market name
• Once again for each market support service address
• Once again for each market full description
• Once again for each market a brief description (fact my brain! I'm already tired of stuffing all these texts with my hands!)
• License agreement (the standard is offered by default, but you can specify your own. This innovation appeared recently - you had to enter your own before)
• Splash-screen 240x240 PNG
• Three (necessarily 3) screenshots with a size of at least 203x176 (firstly, where are these hellish dimensions, secondly, and if I have only one screen and the program with one button “Pysch!”, What then?)

In order to deal with their form of submission (all this unmeasured heap of information is on the same page, and in order to find something that you may have forgotten, you must be very careful), it took me 6 hours! And this is despite all that I was already well accustomed to the dreary procedure of submitting to the Palm market ... But okay, you cannot return the time, I successfully filled in the data and now it's time to post.

If you think that the process of torment ends there, then you are mistaken. In addition to the fact that you have spent the time to enter all this information, voluntary-compulsory automated testing will be organized for your application (well, or not very automated, but it will definitely be).

The very fact of testing makes me personally nervous. For some reason, I immediately recall the App Store and the comrades who had been waiting for Apple's Apple applet for half a year. In fact, Motorola was never better in this regard.

They test using DeviceAnywhere. Testing is this: download the program, launch it, check that the main window appears. Hide the application, check that the window has disappeared, reopen the application, check that the window has appeared, close the application, check what is closing, delete the application — check what is being deleted.

Actually, the process is not dangerous.

After testing there is Content Review - I don’t know what they are looking at, but it was ... LONG !!!

The first build of the application was awaiting a review for 2 months! Damn it, I can’t believe that they have a whole huge queue of people who want to post a program in an unknown market for them and that because of this I had to wait 2 months! It came on review on February 2nd, the answer came on March 30th! And the answer was that they added a splash screen (when I submitted the application, it was not necessary to specify it, otherwise the information would be incomplete and I would not be able to send n testing), but since it is not there, they refused to accept the application in the market.

Ok ... splash screen is also gainable. Added by. At this point, the new version of SMSMyFile was already published, and I changed the binary. Again, sending for testing (it lasts from 10 to 14 working days, that is, 14 - it makes no sense to hope before this period, usually they send an answer on the 14th day). And go! Not passed the test - the application did not run in the emulator!

I did not quite understand them about this. The application successfully rests in the Android Market, works for users, even the previous version, which I normally worked with, the certificates are the same, the changes compared to the previous version are minimal. Why it did not start at them is a mystery.

After that, my interest in motorola faded away. For some reason it began to seem to me that these guys do not need money at all, they are doing everything possible to ensure that the programs do not get to them.

The second pancake ... too lumpy!

Again, the desire came to me when the PDFMyWeb application was released. Again I had to go through a dreary process of entering information about the application, wait for testing again and again the application did not pass testing. This time it was my problem - the application crashed when launched on Android 1.5. Corrected, posted again. I would also like to note that, among other things, motorola has a very tough policy about signing .apk files.

• You build the application in Eclipse
• Then create a binary through Android Tools -> Export Signed Package
• This binary is accepted by the Android Market
• But Motorola will not accept it because, in addition to your certificate, there is still a debugging certificate

Correct Workflow for Motorola

• You build the application in Eclipse
• Open it with 7-zip
• Delete the META-INF folder
• With your hands through the command line and jarsigner sign the .apk file
• Doing optimization through zipalign
• And only after that will Motorola accept your application.

It took me another 10 days to wait for the test results to learn the correct Workflow :)

It was necessary to think of everything on my own. Some texts with a description of the test results are not very informative , but people say that you can write to the support service and communicate with those who tested the application, they can theoretically suggest what was wrong (but I can hardly believe it, but even more poorly believed in the speed of response).

And so, my application accepted it!

Yes, everything is cool, but where is Profit?

Well, yes, accepted, and then what? Yes, really, what's next? Where are the sales reports? How the hell can I find out that the money that (possibly) will be sent to me is exactly the amount that is due to me?

There are no reports as such in principle ! We have to rely on Motorola's honesty, but based on the past more than six months of experience in using their service, it seems to me that this is just an uncultivated field for fraud on their part. They may well say that for a month they have not sold a single copy of the annex and I can’t prove the reverse!

Although yes, the ephemeral promises of some reports on their forum skip from time to time, but ... these are just promises and it infuriates many .

findings

And after all, I sit and think, but was the game worth the candle ... As for me, since the vendor inserts sticks into the wheels and creates problems for developers, it may not fool with him, but allow them to be bent safely? Although the Motorola Droid is one of the best-selling Android devices, it seems that this market is not available for it and there is no chance that the application will be super-sold here? On the other hand, I want to have some kind of additional sales flow, and, accordingly, profits ...

In general, mixed feelings after all this, but many times more negativity.

If one of the readers has success in the Motorola market, then I would like to hear something about this.

UPD: There were several innovations - sales statistics (as I understood, only for the Chinese market). The list of available devices is different for different markets. The most comprehensive list for Brazil is DEXT, BACKFLIP, MILESTONE, QUENCH, FLIPOUT. A FAQ appeared where it’s more or less well-described that yes, you can submit a program with an English description to different markets, although the price must be indicated each time converting the value from dollars into a local currency using a third-party service.