Hey, I'm selling apps on the Android Market and just got an e-mail from a company called Handster, offering to be a separate venue to promote/sell/distribute my apps. Have any of you heard of this before? Is it legit? I checked their website and it seems to be, but who knows these days. I looked around these forums for a thread relating to this, but didn't find any - sorry if this is a duplicate. Thanks in advance, tjob
I also received an email from Handster on the 23rd. Would like to know if anyone has dealt with them.
I responded back to the person who initially e-mailed me, and after checking the website, and some other sources, it doesn't seem like a terrible idea. I have apps that are available for free, as well as purchase, so I may just start with the free versions for a few months to see the type of exposure, and what it's like dealing with Handster before registering any official financial information. Let me know if you've heard anything else as well. Thanks
I just submitted two of my free apps. I liked the submission interface, it was more robust than the other independent app stores I've submitted to. Their website is very cluttered though. Anyways, I couldn't think of much harm they could do since I didn't supply any financial information. I'll post with results later! Note: I googled to get to this post, this is pretty high up on the list when someone googles to learn about Handster.
Nicely done, yeah definitely let me know how it goes with yours. I'm going to try to get mine submitted today. What are the apps you have? Mine are Fone Phinder, My Phinder, and Phriend Phinder - and we're adding a Phamily Phinder shortly. They're all going to be under "MTR" if you search in the regular Android market. Anyway, it seems that all of these independent app stores are sending out mass developer e-mails, because I've received about 4 others as well. It'll be good to hear back about your experience with Handster, and I'll make sure to share mine as well. tjob
We uploaded the three that we have now, and it seems relatively painless. I agree with you that the site seems a bit cluttered, and the "managing" part of your uploaded apps is a little confusing. But, it can't hurt.
I also recently received an email from Handster. I asked them why they don't just list my app like AppBrain does? They responded "We cannot distribute apps withour developer's consent." Can anybody explain why they cannot distribute something that is already available for free on the Android App Market and listed on AppBrain? Are they trying to get some legal rights to my app? I can't imagine what they're asking me for otherwise.
That's interesting... I didn't encounter that issue. We uploaded ours, and they've already gotten some downloads since last week. How do you mean yours aren't listed? As in if you search for them on the Handster website they don't show up?
Hi, I came here looking for information about Handster and I see that I'm not the only one who has received the mail. I've been looking for information about the company and the person (Iren Bereziuk) who sent me that mail and now I have more doubts. This is what I've found: -A professional profile in LinkedIn (seems ok) -Some profiles of russian girls looking for love (strange). -The same mails that I received. Any extra info from someone that is working with them?
Hey, I've got three of my apps up on Handster, no money changing hands just yet because I share your skepticism and reluctance to trust, but I haven't experienced anything off-putting. Although, to be honest, it's more just that the contact I have with the site/market itself is minimal to begin with. The downloads seem to be flowing nicely, and as with the Android Market, people are loath to give reviews and feedback, but I haven't had any world-ending phenomena happen to me since I've uploaded my apps. I'd be interested in what other users of Handster have to say as well! Thanks, tjob MTR Productions
Hello,do we have any progress about this site???Because Iren Bereziuk mailed me too and iam thinking of it!
Hi guys, I got in Handster and upload my free beta game app. I'll share if the downloads increase with them!
Today was my turn for this handster... Any useful info from the people who has been using them for months?
I just got "the email" as well. I guess I will sign up. I do wish people would post back in this thread saying what their results were... I'd like to know if it has any marked increase in DLs. I am currently available free + paid on Amazon Appstore & Android Market, and unhappy with my DL counts..
Hi all, Our company (SPB Software SPB Software for smartphones (Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Blackberry)) is working with Handster for about 5 years. Handster is one of our closest partners. We have all our applications published in their market, including Android apps. Sales are quite good. No delays with payments. Good luck all. Yevgeniy Kim SPB Software
Hi everyone, I work for Handster Inc. as a Business Development Manager. The company was founded in 2005 and gained a reputation of a reliable partner for over 5,500 developers (and this number is growing daily). According to a new report by mobile research specialist Research2Guidance, Handster leads the independent stores for Android apps. Handster manages more free and paid apps than anyone else--nearly 23,000 to date. About 2500 new apps are added every month. You can see more statistics following the link. Android developers head for alternative distribution platforms as Android Market offers limited business potential today | research2guidance Hope this information helps. If further information required you are welcome to contact me at sandra@handster.com. Kind regards, Sandra Ilyina Handster Inc.
We received the e-mail from Handster, now owned by Opera, and after careful review we decided not to join the program. There are some issues that we considered in our descision. 1. We are already in the Android Marketplace, Amazon Appstore, and on MobiHand. We think that adding more app stores will dilute our brand. The brand seems more premium if it's only available in certain stores. 2. Someone can buy from any of those stores, so why add another store? It's like we're competing with ourselves. If we earn $x in a month, from our Android efforts, a little will come from each store. Adding another store means someone buys in the new store instead of at the other stores. And since Handster has a $200 minimum before they pay out, I run the risk of selling one or two apps a month and never getting paid. This happened to us with Handango. 3. The graph that Handster shows from research2guidance doesn't include MobiHand, which is sketchy because MobiHand is HUGE, with huge reach as well. My advice, focus on a couple of popular app stores and forget the rest. Customer reach is more important than number of apps in the store.
The more visibility apps will get, the stronger promotion of the brand. Opera browser has huge traffic, with over 130M monthly users worldwide. Getting promoted to this audience is excellent opportunity for any developer. In addition to this, Opera is launching number of carrier co-branded stores around the world, allowing users to purchase software via carrier billing (which is basically missing in Android market or other stores). With the absence of credit cards, this is will be the only options for users in emerging markets to buy premium software.
It's certainly happening here. In fact where I am, this is pretty much the only way to legally obtain premium apps and games. Google Market and Amazon's App Store are a complete fail for me, when it comes to paid apps and games.
I received email from Handster shortly after uploading my first app to the Google marketplace, one of several automated emails from alternative stores touting for business by using the app's contact details. Fair enough. Except, while everyone else sent just one email, Handster kept sending mail -- 18 months later and I'm still getting pester emails every few weeks asking me why I haven't signed up, and explaining how I have to sign up so I can tell them I'm not interested in their service. I've never responded to any of this stuff -- not even visited their web site -- and there's no unsub link. It's not as if they can claim I was accidentally added to their list, when some of the emails are designed to resemble follow ups to previous requests (yes, they're sending spam quoting previous spam, and asking why I haven't responded!) I've no idea what Handster is like as a company, but such tactics do not exactly inspire confidence, and I'm actually quite surprised I continued to get stuff (most recently one on Nov 11th and another Dec 7th) after Opera got involved with them. Perhaps it will stop soon(?)
Moved to app dev section. I get these emails also and I have been loathe to work with them as their aggressive marketing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. However, given Opera's involvement they may have turn the "legit" corner. We'll see
I first dealt with handster earlier this year when I responded to a request for apps on lgworld, and it was kind of confusing because they sent me the handster distribution agreement and talked about setting up a handster account which appeared to have nothing to do with lgworld, and I only talked with people at lgworld after that. But recently I got more email from handster asking me to add paid apps to my account, and to my surprise, I have a handster account with all my free apps uploaded five months ago, apparently through an automatic process. Maybe I agreed to it, but I don't remember it and don't have any email alerting me to it (otherwise I would have updated the builds and cleaned up the product descriptions sometime in the last five months). I find the whole thing somewhat disturbing. On the other hand, I do have some downloads I didn't realize I had.
