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Over the coming weeks we are going to be making changes to the Vodafone Shop submission process for your apps and games. These changes are being made as we are committed to delivering an excellent and unique Vodafone experience within the Vodafone Shop. With a focus on higher quality applications customers are more likely to return and download again which therefore increases the visibility of your apps to the customer and drives revenue opportunities. These changes, combined with direct customer billing (i.e. no need for credit cards) enhance the experience for the customer. 

These changes will be related to the following:

1. The submission terms and conditions for apps and games
2. The Quality Assurance process for any apps submitted
3. Changes to a category of content in the Vodafone Shop
4. Which images you’ll need to upload for your apps and/or games

Updated application and games terms and conditions will be on the submission portal from October 17^th, you can also view them here.  New submissions and any existing apps in the Shop will be subject to these terms and conditions so will need to be accepted by you in order for us to be able to distribute your application or game.

The Quality Assurance changes include a filtering process which your application will need to pass prior to QA testing with a focus on improving the customer experience and value delivered by the application. This includes ensuring a higher quality bar for the way the application is described, language used, use of keywords that are real words and relevant (for example don’t use ‘game’ for a word processing app) and multi language support where appropriate. Not all of the applications currently in the Vodafone Shop will be affected by this filtering process but if your application is affected then we will contact you as soon as possible.

Your application or game may currently be in the ‘Just for Fun’ category within the Vodafone Shop.  As of October 17^th, this category will no longer exist instead and we will be ensuring games are marketed within the ‘Games’ category.  This category is highly visible to customers and we feel it should be very beneficial for your submission. Please note,

• From Sept 12th 2011 you will not be able to submit new applications, games or upgrades in the ‘Just for Fun’ category. 
• The ‘Just for Fun’ category and all applications and games will be removed from the Vodafone Shop on October 17th. If you have already submitted content which is currently in the ‘Just for Fun’ category then you will need to re-submit your content to the Shop from October 17th for the new ‘Games' category.  This means that your submission will be subject to the new games terms and conditions (point 1) as well as the new QA process (point 2)

With regard to the images you need to upload for your application submission and in order to increase the visibility of your application, we’re moving to a model which is more closely aligned with industry standards.  This should make it easier for you to upload to the Vodafone Shop and distribute your application. Existing applications can use the current images supplied but can also be updated to be in line with these changes. The new image requirements will be effective from October 17^th 2011 for all new submissions.

Privacy for the customer remains very important and the QA process will continue ensure that your application protects sensitive customer data, not just within the application but also within all of its supporting collateral. You can find out more about protecting sensitive customer data in our privacy guidelines here. Please pay careful attention to the guide as your application may not gain approval for publication if it fails to protect our customer’s data.

Finally our customers are looking for innovation, and an application that demonstrates new or novel features would certainly be well received.

Please keep an eye on our blog and website for further updates and news.

Also note, here are some of the common reasons apps may fail QA. Please also refer to our FAQ for further information,

1. Mistakes in short and long descriptions, i.e.: cut sentences, discrepancy between apps description and real apps functionality.

2. Wrong notification about supported languages.

3. App being described on publication system as "No traffic generated at all" although an app requires full Internet access.

4. Screenshots uploaded to publication system are different from the apps view.

5. No advertising mentioned on Content classification section while the app presents advertisements inside.