Well another handset manufacturer opens up their application store which will launch in 20 countries
information is here and Samsungs developer portal for Java is here
For those of us that are experienced at dealing with the Samsungs this is great news. However if Samsung are hoping to stimulate applications on their platform, specific information on the APIs and any device specific nuances that are implemented in their phones would be very useful. Simple information such as maximum jar size for a given phone is absolutely vital for any would be developer and is sadly lacking at the moment on Samsungs developer portal.
Ideally any handset manufacturer should provide device groupings like Sony Ericsson do, this would enable developers to have an understanding of what phones their application might run on and therefore allow them to support more phones, which benefits the would be end user, the developer and the handset manufacturer if they wish to encourage the eco system.
However as this and other recent entrants to the current app store craze, Should take notes it has not just been the application store distribution model that made Apples app store a success…