Develop Reference

Why my Android app targeted to distribute in one country is downloaded in several?

I've published 6 apps on Play Store during the last year, all of them targeted to distribute just in my country under Pricing & Distributing section in Developer Console. Nevertheless today I was checking the contry statistics (CURRENT INSTALLS BY DEVICE BY COUNTRY) and all of them have a bunch of installs in different countries (ten or more). How is it possible?
And I know the distribution filter is working somehow, because once I asked to a friend abroad to install one of my apps and he couldn't until I check his country in Pricing & Distributing section. So I don't know why
The only explanation I can think so far is that those sections are checking different properties to get the country. Maybe "distribution" only take care of the country defined by the operator, whereas the info in statistics check where is the phone now... This is not so intuitive though, and there is not clear description in Developer Console.
I've found anothear thread asking the same, but it wasn't properly answered and today is closed.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20008062/android-app-being-downloaded-from-non-selected-countries
User #jasonflaherty suggested the use of a modified Google Play that doesn't check the countries. This could make sense... but I would like more opinions.
Is this happening on your apps? Any idea of what's happening?
Thanks

How to sign up in google play and my country not there?

I had finished my first app and want to create an account in google play, but i was shocked that the country Iraq is missing from the NAME AND HOME LOCATION Developer Console
Some people told me that i should find a friend who has Visa card from elsewhere, is it true?
Is it possible to sign up from Iraq??

Yes, If your country is not listed in google play that means that country is not allowed to upload any kind of applications's on play store.
If you wish to upload you own application on play store then you need to find someone who lives in the country from the list and ask him to follow the procedures and create an account to upload your application and manage it.

I faced the same problem before, and I did not find an actual solution that satisfies me, so if you want to upload your applications safely and legally, I advise you to upload them to the Huawei Store as the most suitable solution for you. If this is not what you want, you can try the method that I do not recommend to everyone, which is to ask someone from outside Iraq, for example, Saudi Arabia - Turkey - Jordan - UAE - Egypt and other supported countries, but be sure to deal with the trusted person so as not to lose the fruit of your efforts.

Android Market - Selling paid for upgrades (not updates)

I've been trying to work out whether it's possible to do the following sort of thing with Google's Android Market but can't find an answer as all my searches relating to upgrade paths are clouded with results about updating individual apps.
If I have 2 applications, lets call them Application_A and Application_B which sell for $2 and $5 respectively, is there any mechanism by which I can provide an upgrade path so that anyone who owns Application_A already can buy Application_B at a discounted price of $3, but anyone who doesn't own Application_A and just buys Application_B still pays $5?

Best approach I've seen is to sell app b for $2, and use in app purchase ($3) to unlock all it's features.
You can also have a "full" build version and sell that for $5.
You should be able to share almost all of the code in a common code base just fine, and you can even offer this to existing customers (just issue an update with the in-app purchase enabled.)

I've been looking too and it's impossible. :(

As far as I know, you can't provide discounts for your apps in the Android market.

Restrict Android app to an operator

Does anyone know if it is possible to limit the distribution of an Android app to a specific telecom operator in a specific country? for example if I want to sell my app to Verizon customers only?
Thanks!
Frederic

Verizon has its own "sub-store" in the Android marketplace for Android apps (as far as I can tell), and they're also supposedly coming out with their own app store by the end of the year. Here's the sign-up page:
http://promo.verizon.com/how2kit/concept_submission.aspx
In general, I believe that the only way to limit distribution of an app to a specific carrier is to use that carrier's app store (if they have one).
Update: I'm not sure how you could go about restricting download access to an app available in the marketplace, but you could have your app determine the phone's carrier and not allow itself to run if it's the wrong carrier. See:
http://www.mail-archive.com/android-developers#googlegroups.com/msg48701.html

see http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss/msg/ee236fbfb97a3837
in which poster "TreKing" writes:
You would lose that bet =). In the
developer console, where you set the
country your app shows up in, if you
uncheck all countries, you get a list
of countries to opt in to. If you then
click a country, you can select the
carriers within that country.
As usual dealing with the Developer
Console, this is unmarked and
completely non-intuitive, but it's
there.

You could read out the SIM card's IMSI (this may work) and analyze it.

Application Publisher

I am about to finish my Android application. I would like to provide lite version and more complete paid pro version. Unfortunately, Google does not allow Australian developers to sell applications and I don't have any friends in US or UK.
Does anyone know of a person/company who would publish my pro application on my behalf? Google search did not bring up any results.
Thanks.

Do NOT use androidpublisher.com. They publish many pirated apps and flood the market with absolutely horrible applications. As a developer, "Android Publisher" is one of the last things you want associated with your application.

Good news! The Android Market opened up to Australian developers on September 30, 2010.
See this link:
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-countries-more-sellers-more-buyers.html
Also, don't hesitate to deploy to other markets, such as the Amazon Appstore and SlideMe.
For any other countries that are still left out of selling on the Android Market, you can link from your free app to another market that does allow you to sell apps. It's not as ideal, but it will get you into the game.

Well, I have found Android Publisher who would be willing to publish paid applications on behalf of developers who can not publish themselves due to Google's senseless restrictions (so much for being open).
Android Publisher charge 19% service fees for publication services. This is additional to the 30% charge that Google charges to process paid applications. For example, if an application costs $0.99, Google would charge $0.30, Android Publisher would charge $0.19 and the developer keeps $0.50.
Whilst this isn't ideal I feel this is better then publishing on alternative market places as Android Market provides seamless experience and obviously there is much more exposure through Android Market.
In case someone else is interested the contact name is David and email address is: support#androidpublisher.com
As time passes I will keep updating this thread/question (unless the community doesn't want me to!) with my experience dealing with Android Publisher as it may help other developers who don't live in Google approved countries.

I've found company that publishes games. I'm not sure I like their license terms though.
http://hyperbees.com/about/