Selling your application android

 Choosing the Right Distribution Model

The application distribution methods you choose to employ depend on your goals and target users. Some questions you should ask yourself are n Is your application ready for prime time or are you considering a beta period to iron out the kinks? n Are you trying to reach the broadest audience, or have you developed a vertical market application? Determine who your users are, which devices they are using, and their preferred methods for seeking out and downloading applications. n How will you price your application? Is it freeware or shareware? Are the payment models (single payment versus subscription model versus ad-driven revenue) you require available on the distribution mechanisms you want to leverage? n Where do you plan to distribute? Verify that any application markets you plan to use are capable of distributing within those countries or regions. n Are you willing to share a portion of your profits? Distribution mechanisms such as the Android Market take a percentage of each sale in exchange for hosting your application for distribution and collecting application revenue on your behalf. n Do you require complete control over the distribution process or are you willing to work within the boundaries and requirements imposed by third-party marketplaces? This might require compliance with further license agreements and terms. SellingYour Android Application 598 Chapter 29 Selling Your Android Application n If you plan to distribute yourself, how will you do so? You might need to develop more services to manage users, deploy applications and collect payments. If so, how will you protect user data? What trade laws must you comply with? n Have you considered creating a free trial version of your application? If the distribution system under consideration has a return policy, consider the ramifications.You need to ensure that your application has safeguards to minimize the number of users that buy your app, use it, and return it for a full refund. For example, a game might include safeguards such as a free trial version and a full-scale version with more game levels than could possibly be completed within the refundable time period. Now let’s look at the steps you need to take to package and publish your application.

Packaging Your Application for Publication

There are several steps developers must take when preparing an Android application for publication and distribution.Your application must also meet several important requirements imposed by the marketplaces.The following steps are required for publishing an application: 1. Prepare and perform a release candidate build of the application. 2. Verify that all requirements for marketplace are met, such as configuring the Android manifest file properly. For example, make sure the application name and version information is correct and the debuggable attribute is set to false. 3. Package and digitally sign the application. 4. Test the packaged application release thoroughly. 5. Publish the application. The preceding steps are required but not sufficient to guarantee a successful deployment. Developers should also 1. Thoroughly test the application on all target handsets. 2. Turn off debugging, including Log statements and any other logging. 3. Verify permissions, making sure to add ones for services used and remove any that aren’t used, regardless of whether they are enforced by the handsets. 4. Test the final, signed version with all debugging and logging turned off. Now, let’s explore each of these steps in more detail, in the order they might be performed. Packaging Your Application for Publication 599 Preparing Your Code to Package An application that has undergone a thorough testing cycle might need changes made to it before it is ready for a production release.These changes convert it from a debuggable, preproduction application into a release-ready application. Setting the Application Name and Icon An Android application has default settings for the icon and label.The icon appears in the application Launcher and can appear in various other locations, including marketplaces. As such, an application is required to have an icon.You should supply alternate icon drawable resources for various screen resolutions.The label, or application name, is also displayed in similar locations and defaults to the package name.You should choose a user-friendly name. Versioning the Application Next, proper versioning is required, especially if updates could occur in the future.The version name is up to the developer.The version code, though, is used internally by the Android system to determine if an application is an update.You should increment the version code for each new update of an application.The exact value doesn’t matter, but it must be greater than the previous version code.Versioning within the Android manifest file is discussed in Chapter 5,“DefiningYour Application Using the Android Manifest File.” Verifying the Target Platforms Make sure your application sets the tag in the Android manifest file correctly. This tag is used to specify the minimum and target platform versions that the application can run on.This is perhaps the most important setting after the application name and version information. Configuring the Android Manifest for Market Filtering If you plan to publish through the Android Market, you should read up on how this distribution system uses certain tags within the Android manifest file to filter applications available to users. Many of these tags, such as , , , , , and , were discussed in Chapter 5. Set each of these settings carefully, as you don’t want to accidentally put too many restrictions on your application. Make sure you test your application thoroughly after configuring these Android manifest file settings. For more information on how Android Market filters work, see http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/ market-filters.html. Preparing Your Application Package for the Android Market The Android Market has strict requirements on application packages.When you upload your application to the Android Market website, the package is verified and any problems 600 Chapter 29 Selling Your Android Application are communicated to you. Most often, problems occur when you have not properly configured your Android manifest file. The Android Market uses the android:versionName attribute of the tag within the Android manifest file to display version information to users. It also uses the android:versionCode attribute internally to handle application upgrades.The android:icon and android:label attributes must also be present because both are used by the Android Market to display the application name to the user with a visual icon.