[Pilot-db-list-de] New PocketGear Developer Portal and Distribution Channels

[PocketGear <mob...@ne...>]

Dear PocketGear Developer Partner,

We are proud to announce the launch of our new developer portal - http://developers.pocketgear.com.

Developers may now access their entire app catalog from our new unified developer portal.  We hope the new developer portal will enhance your experience as a PocketGear partner, allowing you to have greater control over content management, promotion, reporting and payment for your apps in our distribution network.

In this newsletter you will find information regarding:

   1. PocketGear’s New Unified Developer Portal - http://developers.pocketgear.com
   2. Royalty payments
   3. Changes required for developers using HTTP Post
   4. New distribution channels via the Opera Mobile App Store

1. PocketGear’s New Unified Developer Portal - http://developers.pocketgear.com

Now that more developers are working across platforms, we’ve made it easy for you to access your entire app catalog from across the different operating platforms and related
distribution channels in one place.

The unified developer portal offers developers several improvements over the “classic” systems. You may now manage your entire catalog of apps in all PocketGear-powered storefronts from one location, instead of 3-4 US and one European location previously. You will now be able to access our worldwide network of US Gear sites like PocketGear.com, Smartphone.net, PalmGear.com and classic.pocketgear.com, and European sites like Mobile2Day, Deutsche Telekom Softwareload and others from one central developer portal.

The new developer portal has support for additional platforms such as Java, Android and Symbian. We are now accepting your Java and Android app submissions via http://developers.pocketgear.com. If you have not already done so, please submit your apps for these platforms today! We are expanding our distribution for Android and Java apps, and we strongly encourage you to upload your apps immediately to ensure they are launched in our new
channels.

As a partner, you will now have greater control over the marketing and promotion of your content in our distribution network. The reporting and payments for your apps have all been centralized, so all revenues from PocketGear’s channels can be tracked from one location, and all payments will be combined into one monthly payment.

Other improvements in http://developers.pocketgear.com include:

    * Faster uploads for meta data, screenshots and files
    * Support for multiple languages and currencies
    * Added controls for running promotions for your apps in our storefronts
    * Central site for managing your entire catalog of content in PocketGear’s distribution network
    * Centralized reporting for sales/revenue-figures and payments
    * Free localization of your product descriptions for the German market

Developers should login to the new developer portal using the same username and password as your classic PocketGear developer account. We have merged all of
your data from the classic developer portals into http://developers.pocketgear.com. Please login to the new site and ensure all of your information is accurate. Please also take some time to review your merged product catalogue. Although we made enormous efforts to provide the best merging results we encourage you to review all our changes to your catalog.

2. Information regarding Royalty Payments

Please note that royalty payments for sales through classic.pocketgear.com, PocketGear.com, PalmGear.com, Smartphone.net and The Palm Software Store will be paid out for all developer balances over $200US. These payments will be processed at the end of December. Moving forward, your balance will be accumulated in http://developers.pocketgear.com and payments will be processed out of the new system on a monthly basis provided the threshold has been reached.

For developers who have balances under $200US at the end of December, we will transfer this balance to
http://developers.pocketgear.com and a payment will be processed when the threshold has been exceeded, in concurrence with our regular royalty payment schedule. You may check your current royalty balance in the new developer area at any time.

Developers should login to http://developers.pocketgear.com and update payment information immediately. We now support payment via PayPal and wire transfer, so please make sure your PayPal information or bank account information is current in your developer account.  We no longer charge any fees for processing wire transfers. Please note that payment by check is no longer available.  Please login and update your developer account with current payment information to avoid interruption to your royalty payment.

PocketGear payments will now be processed from our German office, so we will no longer be with holding taxes on your royalty payments. We advise you to check with your tax authority to determine what amount, if any, you have to pay in tax
on your royalties.

3. Changes required for developers using HTTP Post

For those developers using our HTTP Post system, please note that there will be new originating IP addresses from where we send the HTTP Posts. Developers utilizing HTTP Post fulfillment for apps should update the range of IP addresses allowed by your scripts as soon as possible to ensure that orders continue to be fulfilled in real time by our servers.

The new range of IP Addresses to allow HTTP Post requests from are: 85.158.182.0 - 85.158.182.127 and 77.75.248.0 - 77.75.248.31

4. Opera Mobile Storefront powered by PocketGear

Opera Mobile just launched an App Store and we’re excited to announce that is being powered by PocketGear. You can check out the service via your mobile phone at m.opera.pocketgear.com. Since the service is optimized for the Opera Mini browser, if you don’t already have it on your device, we encourage you to download and view the service using the Opera Mini which you can download
here http://www.opera.com/mini/download/

Opera is the #1 mobile browser in the world with over 40 million active monthly users around the world.  The service supports every major mobile platform, over 5,000+ devices, and includes both free and premium applications for discovery and download.

We’ll be distributing our entire catalog and featuring any and all full version applications that don’t require device codes (EMEI, PIN, DeviceID’s, etc.) for purchase – the conversion rates on the full version apps via mobile portals are much higher when end users don’t have to try and find and enter this information prior to completing a purchase. We encourage you to upload full versions of your apps, where possible, to ensure the highest quality customer experience in our app stores.

Thanks for all your past support.  We’re excited about our new developer portal, the progress we’re making with the PocketGear business, and look forward to the many exciting projects we’re
working on for you in 2010 and beyond.

As always, we are eager to hear your feedback. Please feel free to send any feedback or bug reports to fee...@po....

Our best,

The PocketGear Team