I'd like to open a discussion about the practicalities of selling apps through channels other than the Android Market.
We all know the Market's shortcomings. However, it has the great advantage that if you want to charge for your app, you simply set a price in your Developer Console. It's dead simple, and doesn't affect your source. Unfortunately, it's far from foolproof, as the ongoing discussions of piracy attest to: anyone with a rooted handset can freely distribute your "copy-protected" app. Both AndAppStore and SlideME (the alternative market leaders) offer a different approach: you integrate some forward-locking code into your app's source code, checking with their license servers at runtime and taking some action - like disabling your app - if the check fails. Far more robust, but also far more work, and work which is specific to each vendor. As far as I can see, the source code changes mean deploying a different version of each app for each market, and so far that's been just enough work to keep me from doing it. The situation is even worse for an app with a trial version, as one of mine has. Right now, I've got the free trial - really just a time- limited, but otherwise full version - plus a separate paid "license" app in the Market. Installing the license removes the time limit on the main app, and to facilitate the process, I have a link in the main app to the Market page for the license. All of this gets more complicated if I start deploying through alternate markets; either I code the main app to use something like AndAppStore's built-in trial functionality, or I keep my existing license approach, but that means I now have to customize both apps for each market. Headaches all around. So, does anyone have any suggestions for good ways to handle this? Have any other devs overcome this in novel ways? I know both AndAppStore and SlideME monitor this forum... Al and Shane, do you have any tips? I'd really like to expand my opportunities beyond the default Market, but it all sounds like a lot of work for (in Mark Murphy's words) a busy coder! String --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
