Tuesday 11 September 2012

Alternate Means of Distribution

With Completionist now available on Google Play, I decided to try to boost awareness by releasing it on a few other app stores as well.

Right now, it's available on GetJar, and I've submitted it to SlideMe, but it hasn't been approved yet.

Meanwhile, I have to say that it's a bit of a pain to get your app up on either of those stores. At least it was for me.

GetJar has a funny requirement for multiple icon sizes. Strangely, it limits the maximum file size as well, so I had to spend a few minutes trying to optimize a 120x120 icon down under 10kb. Ultimately, it just wasn't possible, so I wound up having to upload something that was considerably less than ideal, all for want of 5000 bytes. With today's bandwidth and storage costs being so low, I can't imagine why they need to limit things so harshly.

The SlideMe site became unresponsive when I tried to complete the app upload process, so I wound up having to repeat it three times before it finally took. Additionally, the upload site has a bug where the tiny thumbnail it produces after you upload a screenshot will occasionally be for a different app entirely. The file still uploads properly, but it's a bit disconcerting.

That being said, there's at least one thing I like about SlideMe: The ability to respond to user comments. I can't do that on BlackBerry App World and it's been an unending source of frustration. Too many users leave questions in the comments, and there's just no way to reply.

Unfortunately, after two and a half weeks my app has yet to be approved on SlideMe, and GetJar has led to a mere 12 downloads. As it stands, I can't recommend either one.

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