I believe Samsung would benefits from bringing back developers discount globally. SDP offers virtual tools for us to test our apps, but there’s nothing like testing apps in person with real devices.
As an indie developer, it’s not cost effective to get flagship or latest devices at full price each year even with Samsung’s generous trad-in offers. We need multiple models to test and troubleshoot apps thoroughly. I’ve purchased several used devices from eBay for sole purpose of testings.
Some may have abused developers discount program in the past. One way to prevent it is offer developers discount to active developers only or by their revenues or offer some kind of device leasing program. I’m just throwing ideas out there. The key is to provide developers with real devices at a cost effective way.
Being able to test apps on real devices saves time and improves quality of apps, which translates into sales and happy consumers. A win win for everyone.
I like John’s idea, we put a lot of time and effort into creating content, and it would be nice if we could get a decent discount on new products, we are some of Samsung’s best advocates! I’d love a new Note 20 but will have to stick with my Note 9 a while longer. And I like the idea of basing it on revenue
Yes, I’ve used RTL a several times last year. My experience with RTL is 50/50. Half of the time uploaded theme APK simply disappeared without an error message. In fact, it says APK has been uploaded successfully but it’s nowhere to be found. Other half of time it works properly. It really depends on the device.
During peak hours you to wait in line for RTL slot to open, then only to found out that particular device doesn’t work with theme APK. It’s much faster to have real devices on hand to test.
I agree, at the beginning I had many problems when publishing the Watch Faces, the only thing to solve was buying the used Sport gear on Ebay, unfortunately I lost it while I was traveling, then I bought the Galaxy Watch 42mm weeks after its presentation, it I had to pay in full without a discount, I think that for a designer it is very important to be able to test the spheres on physical watches to be able to guarantee customers better technical support in case of problems, I leave you a review that you gave me, all the tests I did in RTL worked perfectly…
For dev watches all I care about is the screen, a used watch in fair condition costs about 1/3 of full retail price. Since watch face format is the same for all watches, all you need are two watches for testing, an Active 2 or Galaxy 3 and a S3.
Developing themes are a different story, it’s best to have your themes be compatible with last three generations, at minimum. Then there are different screen aspect ratio between different sizes for each generation of phones. The only way to get the latest model is paying near the full price or through Samsung trade-in program. Still, it can be a large investment if you want to have multiple dev devices on hands.
Speaking of trade-in, here’s another idea. Maybe SDP can offer a dev devices leasing program where developers can lease those traded-in used devices for 6 to 12 months at a significant discount rate. For theme development, I don’t care about cosmetic look nor battery life of dev devices. All it matters is the screen and general function of the phone.
I’ve never used RTL for watch faces, glad to hear they work. Testing themes on RTL really pushes the limits of my patience lol.
RTL is great for functionality tests, but not so good for evaluating aesthetic designs due to AMOLED’s color gamma which can’t be reproduced on computer monitors. That said, RTL is a valuable tool.
Well sadly we also need many watches.
As example on my Keyboard.
The Gear S2 support many Emojis and some functions not well so I have a special version of it.
A Gear Sport and Gear S3 I need to test it on a small and a big screen with a hardware bezel with Tizen 4.0.
A Galaxy Watch Active have also a special version/the app recognize it and show a different layout. (because of the lack of a hardware bezel user can use keys still good even if they are at the end of the screen)
A Galaxy Watch Active 2 I need to test because it have a bigger screen and no bezel.
A Galaxy Watch 3 I need now (still haven’t bought it because it is soooo expensiv ) because some User said the keyboard doesn’t use the new big screen good. (I mean of the 45mm version)
Maybe it is for me just a topic because I need to use the screen size as perfect as possible for the keyboard but well…anyway I need many watches
So it would be also a good idea for us Samsung Galaxy Watch Developers/Designers!
) because some User said the keyboard doesn’t use the new big screen good. (I mean of the 45mm version)