CHARGING for something in the App store? Isn't this forbidden?

First, a disclaimer: this is my opinion. I intend to get some guidance before an official statement is made, but I wanted to summarize things here and hopefully provide some explanation.

There are three things to consider: the SDK license, the monetization info on developer.garmin.com, and the site Terms of Service:

1. The SDK license doesn't really speak directly to monetization, but it does basically say we can use an uploaded app for whatever we like, free of charge. This includes distributing it to other users. While we don't expressly forbid direct monetization of apps as I read it, the implication is that you can't charge for apps because we plan to give apps away for free, plus we have no mechanism in place to handle payments.

2. We fully expect people to be interested in making money from their work, which is why we have a separate monetization section on our developer site (http://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/monetization/). The web service provided by note2app.com falls under the "subscriptions" category, and is the kind of approach I expected many app developers to take. This is important, because it shows our intent.

3. The main issue is that the Rules of Conduct in the Terms of Use say no Garmin internet site can be used by a third party for commercial purposes. This includes selling products and services, or soliciting for donations. There are already a couple of apps in the store that ask for donations, and Note2Watch is advertising a paid service. My reading of the terms of service suggests these are in violation of the terms.

So far, we've allowed this content to persist on the store, and I believe the Terms of Use gives us that discretion. SHARKBAIT_AU's suggestion to remove pricing information and simply link to the service's site seems the most reasonable. As an example, the Moxy app relies on a piece of hardware that is sold separately. The app listing doesn't have any sales information, but the app author links to their own web site where the Moxy Monitor can be purchased.

So, we do want people to be able to make money, but the question comes down to how this information may be presented in the store and on the forums. I'll do some additional checking and post an official response as soon as I find out more.

"•is commercial, business-related or advertises or offers to sell any products, services or otherwise (whether or not for profit), or solicits others (including solicitations for contributions or donations);"

I think that line is pretty clear that Garmin does not want HP or Viagra turning Garmin IQ app download pages into billboards for their products.

Monetization is explicitly allowed, In fact several methods for charging were suggested on the Garmin website. "We built the Connect IQ platform so that you can use your existing business models to monetize your Connect IQ apps."

In general, for this app, I don't see why a web services is even involved, unless the goal is to charge for the website access...

This seems like a great app to have a cooperating app on the phone to enter and manage stuff, and then a CIQ app that works with the data. There are no "magic keys" needed to get the proper data, No 10 second delay for a makeJsonRequest() involved, and no yearly fee.

Maybe I just found my next project! (Android only unless I can get an iPhone really cheap!)

And on Android, maybe I'll just use the stuff from "Google Keep".. Enter in Keep, and it shows on the Garmin device....

First, a disclaimer: this is my opinion.
3. The main issue is that the Rules of Conduct in the Terms of Use say no Garmin internet site can be used by a third party for commercial purposes. This includes selling products and services, or soliciting for donations. There are already a couple of apps in the store that ask for donations, and Note2Watch is advertising a paid service. My reading of the terms of service suggests these are in violation of the terms.

So far, we've allowed this content to persist on the store, and I believe the Terms of Use gives us that discretion. SHARKBAIT_AU's suggestion to remove pricing information and simply link to the service's site seems the most reasonable. As an example, the Moxy app relies on a piece of hardware that is sold separately. The app listing doesn't have any sales information, but the app author links to their own web site where the Moxy Monitor can be purchased.

So, we do want people to be able to make money, but the question comes down to how this information may be presented in the store and on the forums. I'll do some additional checking and post an official response as soon as I find out more.

Maybe I'm lost. If garmin does indeed want people (not corporations or companies) to make (some) money, and as there is a lack of a payment infrastructure on the Garmin App Store, how can this be achieved?

The monetization page does suggest 3 ways to do the monetization, but those basically either involves a phone app, a website or a physical hardware. All of these options seems to only encourage individual developers to continue developing for free. Unless of course, we charge for support (much like the open source software model).

Most likely my view is limited.

This seems like a great app to have a cooperating app on the phone to enter and manage stuff, and then a CIQ app that works with the data. There are no "magic keys" needed to get the proper data, No 10 second delay for a makeJsonRequest() involved, and no yearly fee.

Perhaps there's another learning curve to actually create an IOS/android app. (And again - those apps can be a pay-app or a freemium model app) and that is the rationale.

IOS needs USD99 to start developing (if not mistaken)

tl;dr You can solicit in the store, but not in the forums (or any other Garmin sites).

I've gotten an official word on this:

• It’s fine to solicit on the app store as long as it’s related to your app (this includes listing prices or asking for donations). We consider the store to be under the SDK License Agreement, which trumps the general site Terms of Use. I still recommend that app descriptions be kept relatively light-weight, and suggest using an external site as the primary marketing tool for companion technology.
  
• The forums should not be used as a sales and marketing channel since they are under the general Garmin Terms of Use.
  

An exception to this is if you're linking an app-related post or thread to a relevant product or web service. For example, the Moxy app doesn't make much sense on its own without the Moxy monitor hardware, so I don't think it's unreasonable for the author to post to the App Showcase and link to the Moxy web site just so people can get a full understanding of the app. In this case, the author isn't soliciting business, but demonstrating the system that has been assembled to other developers in the community.

I don't plan to go through the forums and remove existing threads/posts that ask for donations, etc., but any future direct solicitation in the forums will be removed. This is primarily out of fairness to the rest of the forums that aren't related to developer activities, and to avoid non-CIQ related "ads" from working their way into the forums. I'm sure everyone can appreciate that. :)

Please let us know if you have any questions about this.

Since Garmin does not have support (and most likely won't have as far as I understand) for paid apps in the store it would make sense to make the developers' life (those who wants to monetize their work) a bit easier wouldn't it?

As far as I can see - correct me if I'm wrong - there is no way for developers to get one's watch unique ID which would be really really useful to build apps with a freemium model. You don't register the watch you get limited functionality (let's say the app talks to some backend service), you pay you get more things out of the service.

We already have something planned that will allow apps to get a device's Unit ID, which is a unique ID. I expect to see this available later this year.

We already have something planned that will allow apps to get a device's Unit ID, which is a unique ID. I expect to see this available later this year.

This is great news.

It was fun building the code for Note2Watch to pair with the server, but I'd love to be able to rip that out in favor of a device ID.