MOTODEV Blog

[#1]

Hi everyone. What an exciting week it was last week at Motorola!!! Hopefully by now you’ve read the news about our new SHOP4APPS Android app store in China. I’d like to tell you about the tremendous opportunity this represents for you.

The Motorola SHOP4APPS app store will be one of the premier application channels available for Android-based smartphones in China. Add to that the immense size of the market opportunity in China, (China is probably the single largest untapped smartphone market in the world), and you’ve got a recipe for success – Your success!

Motorola will be launching a number of Android-based smartphones with the SHOP4APPS app store preloaded in time for Chinese New Year. In support of these launches, we will be actively promoting the SHOP4APPS app store to our retailers and consumers with a variety of marketing and educational campaigns.  

To take advantage of all of this visibility you must move quickly. Those of you who submit your applications early will get the most exposure during our launch activities. So, beat your competition to market in China and submit your application through the MOTODEV App Accelerator Program at http://developer.motorola.com/shop4apps today.

Remember, very seldom does such an opportunity come along to enter an emerging market when it’s, well…emerging.

[#2]

I had applied the app accelator and approved. But I can't submit my app to shop4apps to motorola. I am always stayed on following link. Would you like to let me know why? Thank you very much.

MOTODEV > Membership > My Account > Edit Team Information

[#3]

Hi,I've a question.What is the payment for moto store??

[#4]

I'm manage a firm in China focusing on iPhone/Android development.

Possible to provide any idea of where apps for Shop4Apps are going to be hosted? What role are carriers going to play in helping distribute Shop4Apps?  Thanks.

[#5]

@Meng du For the Shop4Apps store you need to sign-up for an Alipay account and have a business license in China

[#6]

So, this is only available to developers in China, right? Or those with Chineese documents at least? Because, that's what one needs to get an Alipay account. And without that account, one is not allowed to proceed with registration for Shop4Apps.

[#7]

@Randy Ksar (DJ_Ksar) That makes it impossible for developers outside of China. What's the point of all this?

[#8]

We need clarification from Moto on this.  I'm very interested in posting my apps, but it doesn't look like that is possible.  How do we sign up for an alipay account (the web site is in chinese) and how do we get a chinese business license?

[#9]

Thanks everyone for your interest and questions on Shop4Apps. It's a great opportunity and we want to help you out:

Two options for everyone:

• For free apps, you can submit your apps without needing an alipay account
• For paid apps, an Alipay account and business license is needed.  

We are currently planning a podcast on doing business in China as well as more information on Shop4Apps. Stay tuned to developer.motorola.com and this blog for the latest information.

If you have any immediate and specific questions make sure to send them via our contact us page at http://developer.motorola.com/contactus (click on member services and Shop4Apps in China) or leave a comment on this blog.  

[#10]

I can't believe that Motorola isn't looking for a way around the Alipay limitiation. Why not just take payments on behalf of the developers then pay out revenue. Without the ability to sell apps on shop4apps without a chinese bank account/alipay account shop4apps will fail miserably.

[#11]

@jason kahler we're constantly looking for ways to improving benefits towards developers.  Thanks for your suggestion on taking payment on behalf of developers. Definitely stay tuned to developer.motorola.com and this blog for more Shop4Apps news.

[#12]

In regards to the first comment about the developer getting "stuck" in the Edit Team Information step, we have identified the cause of this issue and have fixed it. You should no longer experience this problem. Please Contact Us if you experience further problems.

[#13]

Two problems here:

1. Alipay. Why doesn't Motorola simply create ONE Alipay account to collect all payments and then distribute to developers, as suggested by @jason???

2. 200-400 characters description. I can do that in English but when translated to Chinese it all of the sudden becomes 60 characters! I have notified support about this. Nothing has been done...

[#14]

Question: What's the point of distributing free apps via shop4apps when free apps are already available in China? Is Motorola planning to remove Google App Store from the phone and only have shop4apps?

[#15]

Hi gnugnu,

Thanks for the idea about creating one Alipay account for all non-China developers to use. I have forwarded that along.

As for the minimum character requirement, we are aware of this and hope to have this resolved soon.

[#16]

How does a U.S. based company go about applying for an Alipay.com account and Chinese business license?

[#17]

gnugu:

Question: What's the point of distributing free apps via shop4apps when free apps are already available in China? Is Motorola planning to remove Google App Store from the phone and only have shop4apps?

Thanks gnugu for comments and engaging on our blog. Our mobile phones in China that support Android we will have Shop4Apps - Read more on our press release.  Android Market is not available to the Chinese market as detailed on the Android web site.

[#18]

RE: Android Market in China,

I think the correct list to look at is this Supported locations for distributing applications.

You are right, China is not there, Hong Kong is. That's probably why I was confused. Because I know that I have some Chinese users of my free apps.

Thanks. Looking forward for resolutions of those other issues.

[#19]

From your press relase: “In addition to our close collaboration with the Android community, we are working closely with our carrier partners in China, and with ecosystem partners like Baidu to provide consumers with a full suite of services.  These services will include search, email and maps for our newest China smartphones.”

Does it mean that the applications that rely on GMail and Google Maps will not work?

[#20]

We need an easy way to submit payed apps to shop4apps, it simple is not possible to even sign up for that account - all in chinese and google translate won't work.

[#21]

Our company has 100's of new Chinese users of our free apps ever week.  If Android Market is not available in China, then why is this occurring?

We were very interested in Shop4Apps and quickly signed up.  We then however saw the limitation of Alipay and a Chinese business license which meant our paid apps would not be possible through this channel.

In short these restrictions on paid apps for non-chinese developers are simply bad.  A very bad way to try and grow an app store in China.

Many of these restrictions around foreign developers doing business in China, the transfer of funds across Chinese borders and all the restrictions designed to grow a strong domestic developer community shielded from foreign competition are just outright wrong.  Unfortunately these are put in place by the Chinese Government and until such time as something radically changes, I doubt there is anything Motorola can do about it.

Look us up with you get this fixed!  Nice move Motorola!!!  Now back to work!

[#22]

Sorry, this store ins not worth the effort at the moment.

There is more limitations felow developers!

Supplied an free app.. got this back.

Thank you for submitting myTimeSheet v.2.5.1 to SHOP4APPS, Motorola's China storefront for Android applications. In testing myTimeSheet v.2.5.1, we noticed it presents advertisements to the end user. At this time, SHOP4APPS in China cannot support applications that include embedded advertising; however, please know that we are continuing to investigate options to help you generate incremental revenue.

In the meantime, we kindly ask that you remove the embedded advertisements and resubmit myTimeSheet v.2.5.1 and we will be happy to add it to SHOP4APPS inventory right away to help maximize your consumer exposure. We look forward to making myTimeSheet v.2.5.1 available to our users in China.

I might be interested to use shop4apps in the future, but I don't work for free...

[#23]

sorry for the issues on submitting to Shop4Apps in China. @Codeape Mobility your TimeSheet app sounds pretty cool and I think the chinese audience would enjoy it.  It's an exciting market and the only avenue that audience has to download Android apps on our phones. Definitely keep this blog bookmarked and developer.motorola.com/shop4apps for the latest Shop4Apps news. 

[#24]

Great improvment with support for Paypal!

You guys rock!

[#25]

@Codeape Mobility you welcome. Let us know if you have any other questions.