A Mobile App Store (Application Store) is a virtual market place where there are numerous mobile applications that can be downloaded, either for free or at a fee. The App Store may support only one family of handset or a variety. Examples include the iPhone App Store, Nokia Ovi, Google Android Market and GetJar.

The Shujaa Solutions Developer Platform is a web based system that allows mobile software developers to upload and test their applications. It is especially catered for East Africa. Shujaa Solutions is in the process of negotiations with various companies including local operators to create a distribution network for these applications. Announcements will be made when agreements are concluded.

In order to submit your applications you will first have to create an account on the system through our signup page.

Any third-party developers interested in creating and delivering new mobile applications can submit their mobile applications to the Shujaa Solutions Developer Platform.

Applications submitted to the platform go through the following process:

Submission

Submit your developed application and related content for example screenshots and description through the Shujaa Solutions Developer Platform website.

Evaluation

Shujaa Solutions regularly reviews and evaluates submitted applications in accordance with various criteria including business viability, technical viability and content suitability.

Testing

Shujaa Solutions will verify the functionality and usability of the application. This may be done in combination with emulators and actual handsets supported by the application.

Distribution

Applications that have successfully passed the test will be published through Shujaa Solutions' distribution channels. The developer will be able to monitor statistics of his or her applications through his/her profile on the developer website.

This process will usually take up to 2 weeks. Before submitting your application for consideration on the Shujaa Solutions Developer Platform, review the following guidelines:

• Your application must be tested for stability, functionality and compatibility against the phone models supported to avoid application rejections and testing failures.
• Your application must not violate or infringe the intellectual property rights (including trademark rights) of others.
• You must either own all rights to your application and the content displayed in the application or have express permission from any third parties involved in producing the application and/or content.
• Your applications must be free of viruses and any other malicious software.
• Your application should manage handset resources efficiently.

Presently we are supporting the following: Java Mobile Edition (JME), Windows Mobile, Android, iPhone, Nokia S40 & S60 (Symbian). If there is enough demand for other platforms for example Palm, we will also consider supporting them.

Simply point your mobile/tablet browser to http://shujaa.co.ke or http://www.shujaa.mobi and your phone will be served with a mobile version of our website. This process is known as Content Adaptation. You can then point at the link "Apps" and proceed to search for your application.

All applications have unique codes. A Code as defined here is a 5 character alphanumeric string. You will be required to input the valid code of the application you wish to download. To obtain the code for a particular application, you will have to contact the Developer directly. Through this mechanism, we allow developers to control who downloads their applications.

We have a robust content adaptation engine in place but it may fail to distinguish certain handsets from desktop browsers because those handsets behave very much like desktop computers. In this case, you can point your browser directly to the mobile apps using the following link: http://www.shujaa.mobi/xhtml/index.jsp

Note: We do not charge a premium fee for downloads, they are free. The only cost you will get is for using the data network of your operator (usually minimal). If your phone is capable of using Wifi / Wimax, then you will only pay for the network usage.

A developer license is an agreement between you the software developer and Shujaa Solutions. It gives permission to use the platform under certain terms of service. You can read about the Developer License Agreement here and the Terms of Service here.

There are two types supporting the following categories of developers: Individual and Corporate.

Presently it is free of charge. By creating a Developer account on the website, you are granted a license to create your software. However we will charge a yearly nominal fee once we have established distribution channels for your applications. This is to cover administrative costs. We will also optionally offer hosting for your back-end logic. At a minimum, the back-end will support PHP5 and MySQL 5.

At the moment we don't provide any developer tools but we plan to have both web based and desktop tools in the future. We recommend seeking the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) of the software environment that you would like to develop on, for example Netbeans for Java Mobile or Visual Studio for Windows Mobile.

Yes, you create and manage your own account as a developer. Within your account you can add and manage your uploads, view download statistics and provide feedback.

A mailing list is provided for you where you can post your questions to the general group. Upcoming events including road shows and workshops will also be arranged for, depending on demand.

We are working on acquiring test SMS and USSD short codes for your use as a developer. It will be announced when completed but we cannot give a date at the moment.

Shujaa Solutions supports the following business models for your application:

• Free: Your application is distributed free of charge.
• Revenue Sharing: Shujaa Solutions will pay you seventy percent (70%) of the Net Revenue for all sales of your application.
• One-time Purchase: Shujaa Solutions will pay you a royalty fee once.

Shujaa Solutions is in the process of establishing relationships with various partners through which applications can be distributed. These include network operators. In some instances, these partners may levy additional fees which will be counted as costs. These costs will be deducted in order to determine Net Revenue.

As a developer you are free to price your application based on your target audience. We will normally use the price you recommend as the retail price for purchasing your content. On occasion and after having agreed with you, we may decide to discount your application for various reasons including boosting popularity.

We are working with various financial institutions to come up with a model that will allow you to receive money directly into your account. Reconciliation will be monthly. Details are to be announced soon.

We have an internal metric rating system partially based on some of the following criteria:

• Number of Downloads
• User Rating: Users will be able to rate your application independently.
• Usability: For example; how responsive is the user interface? Is it intuitive? Do the input mechanisms match the functionality, e.g. provision of qwerty keyboard for touch-only devices? Is the interface attractive?
• Functionality: For example; does the application meet all functions as specified by the developer? Does it solve the problstrong stated in the best way, e.g. how does a tracking application gather coordinates of the mobile device?
• Reliability: For example; does the application crash after sometime? Does it lose data if there is an incoming call? What fault tolerance mechanisms are built into it, e.g., how does it behave when there is no network coverage? Is the application signed? Possibly certified by a standards body? Are there inbuilt security mechanisms, for example password protection, transmission of encrypted data?
• Efficiency - how does the application use syststrong resources including runtime mstrongory, CPU, persistent mstrongory?
• Portability - For example; how many mobile handsets does it support? Is it easy to install on supported devices? Does it work across different operator networks / WiFi / Wimax?

We try to keep our rating as objective as possible to prevent human bias. For proprietary reasons we have not published it for public consumption. A combination of simulators and handsets is used when testing applications.

For further details on software quality metrics, consult ISO/IEC 9126.

One of our objectives is to foster local content development and therefore have no intention of thwarting the efforts of others. You are protected by the Developer License and can charge us if we infringe on your rights. We want to see a vibrant community of local content developers.

You are responsible for ensuring that no one has placed any form of intellectual property protection on a concept that you are planning to develop. This may for example be in the form of a patent, trade secret or copyright. If there is no such mechanism in place, then you are free to create your idea.

For any other type of feedback, write to info@shujaa.co.ke or use our Feedback page.