Some months ago, I was trying out the Samsung App Store.

So, at the Samsung App Store, things are quite more complicated than with every other store. I do will not talk about different marketing graphics sizes .. you are right, they are all different than at the other stores :-)

Samsung decided that you need to upload your .apk File for every distinct device group they offer. So they invented such a group for nearly every possible screen resolution.

That's why I uploaded Robo Miner there for just one device group.

Now, the S3 for example got it's own device group, they have 18 (!!!) different device groups. So you need to upload the .apk File 18 (!!!) times??

I don't know, what they think, what we devs are doing and also why was it not possible to stick with well established functions like the info in the apk manifest file. I do not really get the point of it.

But today, while creating a new Q&A for them to ask if it is possible to submit for ALL devices, I've found a very interesting information, which will - at least for me - be the end of submitting apps to the Samsung App Store.

Thing is, normally, they want a fee when you first submit an activation and they also want a fee to test your application. Andy they also want this fees for EVERY device-group (or device?) you submit your app.

So, when you update one of your apps - this fee does cout again, for every device you want to support.

Now it is very clear, why they do maintain that much device groups and why they may not offer an option to support ALL devices.

Ok - I do see, that they put some effort in testing the game really for every device you submit, and they will send you a video and screenshots if something is wrong with it.

But all they do is start up your game and see if everything looks ok.

Let's compare some numbers. Robo Miner is there for a little bit of time (some months or so) and it is downloaded around 100 times a day. At the Amazon App Store, it is downloaded around 40 times a day.

As far as I know, Amazon does not aim to collect a testing fee, but they will collect a yearly useage fee of 100 $.

Both stores has currently a promotion period - Samsungs period ends with the 30th of June and I don't know when Amazon will end their promotion period.

So even IF I would pay someone to test my application on different devices I would want to be sure, that they test not only the overall look or if it contains any "bad words" but instead are really testing the functionality, meaning, test if everything is going how it is supposed to go.

Neither Samsung nor Amazon give me that service.

Point is, both stores may aim for high quality apps/games where devs have to pay them to deploy your app while the devs have still a massive amount because of the complicated uploading procedure.
So the way to go is with paid apps - but even then you have to give away some part of your revenue to them.

I do not like such methods, even when I understand the need for it, because they have to pay the employees which are testing your app and such things.

For Indy Developers I am currently not willed to recommend that stores for the sole reason that the pure download numbers does not pay back the effort when compared to google play market for example.

Even with my not-so-popular games like Minesweeper: Unlimited! it is well visible, that their service does not pay off.

Minesweeper: Unlimited! (free) gets around 10-20 downloads a day from google play while it hardly reaches 4 downloads a day at amazon.

For the paid version of it, Amazon reached an all-time number of 14 downloads, while google play reached over 30 downloads.

So, really, if you thinking about which stores to publish your apps/game - stick with google play. Neither Amazon (when they will collect the fee) nor Samsung (when they collecting more fees) are able to do more for you than google play can - and with the lter you only have to pay a one time fee of 40$.