Apple do exactly the same thing with their Apps: You can specify which features your App needs & the iOS App Store will only offer it to the appropriate devices. Need a gyroscope? Your App can't run on a 3G iPhone.
This really isn't rocket science. If Amazon really are ignoring the Manifest file shipped with the Apps submitted to them then that is a huge failure on their part & most definitely not the fault of the dev in any way whatsoever.
This horse was beaten so many times, it is already dead.
> I really don't think you can blame Amazon for this, however.
Sure you can. Google Market handles this condition gracefully, i.e. if you can't run it, it will not show it to you. So why to hold Amazon to lower standard?
And here comes Google relationship with device manufacturers. As you certainly know, Market is not a part of the open-source android release, but proprietary app, that has to be licensed, if you want to distribute it on any device. So when the manufacturer licenses the app for the specific device, it also provides Google with device capabilities. Google puts it into the market, so they can show you only those apps, that your device is capable of running.
Amazon, of course, does not have such a database, and also does not have relationship with device manufacturers. It is up to them to find a way to build similar filtering mechanism. Nobody said, that building competing market is easy and that reviewing apps is enough. Good luck trying, though.
(Reading between the lines of the original blog post, possibly they just failed to enforce device restrictions for the free "App of the day" promotion.)
And even devices with the same version of Android will have differences.
> much like pretty much any website does not use HTTPS.
Apart from that just sounding line an awful sentence, that sentence is pretty much the same as saying "well bobby doesn't eat his vegetables, why do I have to!"
The author then claims his server would be burdened by the additional overhead of SSL. Funny, because I remember reading an article back when FireSheep was in the spotlight from Google stating that SSL only adds an additional 1-2% overhead tops. Over-exaggerate much?
> It turned out Amazon fails to filter out devices that should not be supported according to the Manifest file.
Welcome to the world of fragmentation. Honestly, that is the biggest difficulty with coding for Android. I really don't think you can blame Amazon for this, however. Even the Apple App Store lets iPod Touch users download applications only designed for the iPhone (unless they changed it recently). But this is an issue you have to deal with on every platform. Apples had the big PPC/Intel issue with requiring 2 binaries, one for each processor type. It's up to you to make it as clear as possible to the user if their device is supported or not.
>3. Where are my customers?
Put your email address in the description? How about in the app itself?
>Since there are so many devices available, supporting them all is difficult.
That's like a car mechanic saying "There's so many types of engines, I don't think I can learn how to fix them all!" Programming isn't something your mom can do on her way home from a soccer game. It can take an enormous amount of time, dedication, and skill. Once again, the author is blaming Amazon because coding is "hard".
The author then goes off about a review that was left filled with inaccuracies. That's yet another problem you'll have to deal with in a service like the Android Marketplace or Amazon Appstore. If they let you cherry pick reviews, it would lead to developers burying negative reviews that reveal their application does something "evil". The more time you spend getting all upset about a comment a user left, the less time you're spending improving your game or application and the less I actually would want to spend money on it.
As for the price change, the author provides next to no information on this.
Don't get mad at Amazon because you found out what Fragmentation and trolling from commenters is.