Developers all over the world will cringe at this announcement: according to PocketNow, the XPERIA X1 will ship with Handango’s InHand client in its ROM.
The effects of this announcement should be clear to anyone: if you want to do business with the majority of XPERIA users, you have to put up with whatever insanities the folks at Handango’s dream up next.
Handango has not turned out to be too consumer-friendly over the last months: their distribution contract contains extremely annoying and potentially dangerous terms I personally think to be borderline illegal under Austrian law.
For example, did you know that programs published at Handango’s must be legal all over the world; and that it’s the developers sole discretion to verify this (greetings go out to programmers of applications catering to Christians, Jews, alcohol drinkers and holocaust deniers)?
Should you now develop a wine database or electronic bible and upload it at Handango’s, folks in some countries will be more than unhappy. If the boys press software DVD for that market, has your app on it and has to redo the materials, the developer should prepare for a hefty penalty.
Sony Ericsson’s decision probably already is firm – all I can do is point out the existence of MobiHand, a developer-friendly ESD…
P.S. Each of the four content categories mentioned above is illegal in at least one country of the world. This is TamsPPC – please do NOT abuse the comment function to discuss any of the topics in an extent not related to Handango!
Legal disclaimer: the TamsPPC team does not endorse or discourage Christianity, Judaism, Alcohol or holocaust denial! The four ideologies are mentioned solely as examples for content that could be troublesome at Handango’s (sorry, but we have to do this due to Austrian laws).
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