Samsung will reject app not use Samsung SDK from July 1

Android Android Development
1

Samsung will reject app not use Samsung SDK from 1 July, this is their email:

[Seller Office] Application submission policy changes
Dear Sellers,

Thank you for using Samsung Apps Seller Office.

This is to inform you that Seller Office’s app submission policy will be changed from July 1, 2014. the changes are listed below.

1. When submitting new app in Seller Office, you are required to submit app that was developed using Samsung SDK. 

※ Samsung SDKs are the tools that help sellers to make apps using Samsung device-specialized functions such as S Pen, Finger Print, Gesture, Motion and more. Please visit SAMSUNG DEVELOPERS (http://developer.samsung.com/) to download Samsung SDKs and obtain additional information. 

※ In case of existing apps registered in Seller Office, the apps can be updated without using Samsung SDK. 

2. Samsung Seller membership will be terminated for those who registered before February 20, 2014 (GMT +09:00), but have not submitted any apps to Samsung Apps Seller Office. (Membership termination date : June 30, 2014)

Please refer to the below Q&A for more information or contact our Customer Support team (Samsung Seller support).
Q 1 : If I submit app before July 1, 2014, should my app use Samsung SDK?
A 1 : No, the new policy will be effective from July 1, 2014.
Q 2 : Is it impossible to submit apps without using Samsung SDK from July 1?

A 2 : No, but you must use Samsung SDK to submit apps. however, Sellers who have separate contract or partnership with Samsung can submit apps without using Samsung SDK. if you have any question on contract or partnership, please contact our Customer Support team ([Samsung Seller support](http://help.content.samsung.com/csseller/)).

Q 3 : If my membership is terminated, how can I obtain membership again?

A 3 : You can re-register and obtain a new membership after 72 hours from the most recent membership termination.

We appreciate your understanding and our Customer Support team will be available to assist you with any questions or concerns. (Samsung Seller support)

What i don’t understand is if i submit game, they force me use their SDK? :confused:

2

Assuming they mean “use” as in “use actual features of the SDK”, rather than just add the .jar to the build.

I guess nobody was using the SDK, so they are going to force everyone to use it. Whether they like it or not.

3

Which is utterly idiotic - why on earth would I need any of those features for, say, a game?

4

Maybe they want to limit the store to only apps using their features? That might be caused by some agreement with Google.

5

I had a quick look through the SDK features after I got the same email. I can’t honestly see how I could use any of them in my games!

6

IAP maybe?

7

I also don’t see why they do that.
I have an app in their store, but for sure I will not spend a single minute including their f*cking SDK. Anyway, I was thinking about deleting my app from the Sasmung store because it is a pain to update my app there. I’m not sure if that can be changed, but I always need to update it for three different categories of devices. And the page is so danm slow that I usually skip some version of my app before I update the Samsung store.
Besides that, the number of downloads is very poor. When I first submitted my app, downloads were about 1/3 compared to Google Play (Android Market at that time). But then there were more and more apps in my category and downloads dropped. So nothing to worry about from my side.

8

@itsnotme that’s the reason I stopped releasing on samsung store … it’s just a real pain, not sure how it is nowadays, but back the days you need also different gfx size than everywhere else. I didn’t track the downloads there anymore but it was less or equal than amazon store.

I would say all those ppl who get their first samsung smartphone will probably use the samsung store prior to the android store (due to their samsung tutorial) so you may have a chance to get some first time users by using the samsung store.

9

After hours this is what i guest about this:

  • You can add IAP or payment through Samsung
  • You can add DRM lib by Samung
  • You can support MultiWindow with your game/app
  • You can support S-pen(Note)

But it’s so confuse. My apps have good download but my game very terrible. Maybe i will stop publish game on Samsung App