MobileThe Top 6 Google Play Alternatives for Distributing Apps

The Top 6 Google Play Alternatives for Distributing Apps

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We provided the essential info to prepare your apps for Google Play store in the previous tutorial, “Packaging and Distributing Apps for Google Play”. However, not all the devices have Google Play store preintsalled due to a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons is that device manufacturers have their own branding stores, e.g. Amazon, Samsung. Another reason is some choose the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) for their devices. Google-proprietary applications that are not Open Source cannot be included in this “AOSP” Open Source project.

Once you create your apps, of course you want to distribute them to as many customers as possible to maximize your profit. In this article, we will look into some of the potential app store alternatives. A few basic rules are used to qualify them as our candidates. These stores at least need to support the viewing option in the English language and make apps available for the world-wide audience instead of just local regions. They also need to host and support paid apps.

Other Recommended App Stores

While trying to identify what other alternative app stores are available in addition to Google Play, there are overwhelmingly many out there in different countries, regions, and languages. Therefore, at least some simple rules can help us filter out many unlikely candidates. First off, since our main goal is to make a profit out of our effort, the stores must support paid apps; they cannot be limited to downloads within restricted regions or countries and the stores need to proide the viewing option in English for the world-wide customers. They should also provide trackable info of significant user traffic. There are still several stores that qualify for our rules, e.g. Amazon, Samsung, SlideME, Opera, GetJar, AppsLib, etc. Some major ones will be briefly introduced later in this article. One great source of finding related info is listed as One Platform Foundation in the reference section.

Please note, though, despite these alternative stores can potentially maximize our app profit and exposure, generally they also pose two very common concern issues: security and piracy due to the nature of the store ecosystem and the world-wide customers.

Amazon Appstore for Android

Amazon Android Appstore

Registration for the developer program is free and you can do it from http://developer.samsung.com/ All the extra SDKs are downloadable here. 70% of the proceeds from purchases of apps are forwarded to the corresponding developer. Samsung does provide its own certification process, so it will take a few days before your apps get certified and ready for the market.

Samsung Apps
Figure 2: Samsung Apps

SlideME

SlideME

(Figure 4:)

It is a platform-independent browser-based application store. Their apps lists are compiled separately for each country. It is an application distribution platform for the developers in the world and provides millions of apps and games for different mobile phone models across most platforms.

Link: https://publishers.apps.opera.com/

Registration: free

Proceeds: 70% of sales

GetJar

Link: http://www.getjar.com/

(Figure 5:)

They claim their Cost-Per-Install advertising platform is the most efficient and scalable way to acquire new and highly engaged mobile users for your app. You can’t sell apps directly to the consumer on GetJar, but you can sell through partner app stores to distributes apps and maximize your earnigs.

Link: https://developer.getjar.com/android/

Registration: free

Proceeds: 100% through partner stores

AppsLib

Link: http://www.appslib.com/

(Figure 6:)

They claim to be the second largest Android marketplace after Google Market and have an installation base of over 2 million tablets worldwide and the only marketplace on those tablets. Customers will not see your apps if they are not in AppsLib.

Link: http://appslib.com/developers/

Registration: free

Proceeds: 70% of sales

Opera
Figure 4: Opera

GetJar
Figure 5: GetJar

AppsLib
Figure 6: AppsLib

Conclusion

In this article, we laid out some basic criteria to identify some major alternative app stores in addition to Google Play. The list of recommended stores we briefly described includes Amazon, Samsung, SlideME, Opera, GetJar, AppsLib, etc. These are the app stores with high-volume traffic and without the availability of Google Play for various reason. Therefore, if you don’t publish your apps at their stores, customers simply do not have a way to see or purchase them. In the reference section, One Platform Foundation maintains excellent statistical information about even more Android app stores with sortable categories you should check out. In summary, no matter how many more other stores can be found in the future, focusing on creating great apps is always the most important of all.

References

About the Author

Chunyen Liu has been a software professional for years. He was among winners at programming contests. He has been software co-patentee, written 30+ articles, reviewed books, and published apps at Androidlet and The J Maker. He holds advanced computer degrees, trained in 20+ graduate-level courses. On the non-technical side, he is a rated player, certified umpire, and certified coach of USA Table Tennis, winning State Games and US Open categorized doubles event previously.

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