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From Samsung:

Dear seller,
Thank you for being a part of Samsung Apps.Please note that the following improvements will be made to the service to reflect your valuable opinions of using Seller Office.
Effective from
 – Thursday 13th December, 2012
Major changes
1. Multiple Binary
 – You can upload up to 10 binary files to an application.
 – Target OS: bada and Android (except for other OS and bada widgets).
2. Flexible Price
 – You can choose the price of your applications and items at your own discretion.
 – You can configure the price to be automatically converted to foreign currencies based on the exchange rate of when you entered the standard price.
※ However, the recommended Phone Bill Price is automatically set to the highest approximation if you are using Phone Bill because Phone Bill Price is fixed by country.
3. Service now available in more countries
 – New countries with paid stores: New Zealand and Nigeria.
 – New countries where P-SMS payment can be used: Philippines, Kuwait, and Qatar.
4. Other Information
 – The Add button in Trial will be removed from applications that are On Sale and In Certification.
 – The NFC option will be added to Device Recommendation (Auto detection: Android, Direct input: bada).
For questions and comments, please use Seller Office > Support > Contac Us
We will continue to work hard in order to provide you with the best possible service.
Thank you.
Your Seller Office Team.

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From Google:

We’re writing to let you know that Google Play will be supporting tax-inclusive prices in Brazil. Prices set in the Developer Console must be tax inclusive. We encourage you to log into your Developer Console  and make any necessary adjustments to your pricing. To learn more, please visit our Help center at http://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=138000

We would also like to remind you that we have introduced Buyer’s Currency in Brazil. All prices for this locale will be in the Brazilian Real (BRL) currency.

IMPORTANT:  If you have not manually set pricing for Brazil in the Google Play Android Developer Console by Dec 17, 2012, Google Play will automatically assign Brazilian Real prices for your products. Google Play assigns a Brazilian Real price based on the price of your app in your home currency, converted to Brazilian Real using the exchange rate on that day. Google Play will also automatically add taxes based on the tax rate you defined in the Google Checkout Merchant Center.  This is a one-time conversion associated with the transition to the new Buyer’s Currency model. If you have already set your per-currency prices manually, Google Play will not override them.

You can continue to set and adjust the prices of your apps at any time, in your home currency and in any Buyer’s Currency available.

For more information about how Buyer’s Currency works, please visit the Google Play Help Center:

http://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1169947

We are aware that in our communication from December 12, 2012, we listed wrong currency for Brazil. Rest assured that the currency we are supporting is Brazilian Real. Please accept our sincerest apologies for the confusion.

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BlackBerry is arranging a “port-a-thon” to attract developers to the new BlackBerry 10 platform. In a 36 hour event, they will put a ton of technical resources and people at disposal for developers, and they’ve opened the goodie bag:

  • Developers receive $100 for each approved app (up to a max of $2000). Interesting twist as opposed to Google Play where you have to pay to submit
  • Developers submitting between 2-5 games get a free PlayBook tablet
  • A BB10 Alpha device is given to the first 100 developers who submit between 5-10 games
  • The first 10 developers who submit between 10-20 apps, get a BB10 Alpha app + a free trip to GDC in San Francisco

 

So the question is whether this will be enough to entice developers.  BlackBerry is a profitable platform, and generates significant revenues for those that are in their store, probably due to lack of apps. It is also interesting to note their heavy focus on games, no doubt due to their purchase of ScoreLoops and having Volker Hirsch head up this unit.

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From Samsung:

Dear seller,
Thank you for being a part of Samsung Apps.Please note that the following improvements will be made to the service.
Major changes
 – Countries with paid stores added : New Zealand, Nigeria
 – Countries with P-SMS added : Philippines, Kuwait, Qatar
 – Date of Implementation for Seller Office: November 09, 2012
 ※ Buyers can purchase applications and use the P-SMS payment method at the store of the applicable country from December 2012.
Additional Announcement
 – The function, ‘Add Device’ has been deleted: The function for adding a device has been deleted, as multiple device groups can be registered for a single item of content from June.
 ※ If you want to add a new device, click [Update Application] on the application details page.
 ※ If you want to register a new device group with a different binary, click [Add New Application].

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From Samsung:

We have made selling game applications in Brazilian stores more convenient.
 – Before : An MJ/DEJUS certification must be acquired.
 – After : If an application has an ESRB or PEGI certificate instead of an MJ/DEJUS certificate, it will be assigned the corresponding MJ/DEJUS age classification.
 – If it does not have an age classification from any official agency, it will be automatically provided with an 18+ rating for sales.
 – Effective from : Thursday 1st November, 2012
< Additional Announcement >
The checking process for Android updates has been changed.
 – Before : Version check by Version Name
 – After : Version check by Version Code
When updating applications, the Version Code of the binary you are updating must be higher than that of the binary previously registered.
※ The Version Name refers to the version of the application that is displayed for buyers via the channel.

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From Google:

We’re writing to let you know that we will be introducing Buyer’s Currencies in two new countries, India and Russia. All prices for these locales will be in the Indian Rupee (INR) and Russian Ruble (RUB) currencies, respectively. Please visit the Google Play Developer Console to set prices for these new countries by October 25, 2012.

IMPORTANT: If you have not manually set pricing for the additional countries in the Google Play Android Developer Console by October 25, 2012, Google Play will automatically assign Buyer’s Currency prices for your products. Google Play assigns a price based on the price of your app in your home currency, converted to each target currency using the exchange rate on that day. This is a one-time conversion associated with the transition to the new Buyer’s Currency model. If you have already set your per-currency prices manually, Google Play will not override them.

You can continue to set and adjust the prices of your apps at any time, in your home currency and in any Buyer’s Currency available.

For more information about how Buyer’s Currency works, please visit the Google Play Help Center:

http://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1169947

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From Samsung:

We understand that it can be a hassle to enter the binary file information when you register applications and we have tried to improve the Seller Office service based on your comments and opinions. Please note the following improvements have been made to device recommendations and category settings.

1. When you upload a binary file, compatible devices are recommended automatically.
– These improvements to application registration have been made for your convenience: some information entered in the manifest is now detected automatically and compatible devices are recommended based on that information, as well as information entered manually by the Seller.
– Target OS: bada, Android
– Auto Detection Items: App ID, API Level, Version (common), Mobile Network, VoIP (so far only available for Android), and more
– Other Manual Input Items: S Pen and more
– Effective from: Wednesday 10th October, 2012

2. Now, an additional category can be set when registering an application.
To help Sellers who had difficulty selecting only one category, because of the variety of features on their applications, you can now select up to 2 categories per application.
Primary Category: required / Secondary Category: optional
Effective from: Wednesday 10th October, 2012

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If you have published anything to the Vodafone AppSelect store, you would have recently gotten this message (although chances are you have not, which is probably why this message was sent out in the first place):

Due to technical and operational considerations, Vodafone AppSelect will now close on 21 November 2012, which is earlier than anticipated and originally communicated. Accordingly, please take this email as formal notice that we will be closing AppSelect and ending our agreement with you on 21 November 2012.

Question is, is this a signal of the coming fall of the mobile operator app store? Rumors are certainly plentiful in the marketplace and many have predicted their downfall. Certainly a lot of mobile operators have proven that they are not good enough to be retailers, but still there are others that have been moderately successful. Mobile operators can more often than not customize the home screen on phones, and they can provide direct billing. These are important pillars for discovery and easy of charging – but they still need to be experts at content retailing. The unraveling has begun – but who will survive among the operators?