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I'm stunned about some of the comments on SymbianSigned here.

Basically, SymbianSigned has disrupted the whole developer community. And it's design is struggling with real-life problems.

It's kind of funny to blame end-users trying to sign "unsigned" applications - while SymbianSigned.com is simply inviting them to do so.

The only reason for "developers" to offer "unsigned" applications is, that they cannot afford to go the "Certified Signed" route - costing at minimum US$380, but effectively A LOT more. PLUS the cost for preparing for Certified Signed, PLUS the cost for preparing for a Publisher ID, PLUS the cost for failing the tests ...

Unfortunately, the market for third party apps isn't paying off well, so there's really no point in saying you should try to recoup those costs - ESPECIALLY if those costs are of no equivalent value to the developer. Those are market entry costs (or should I say penalties) and nothing more.

For a number of developers, the preconditions for obtaining a Publisher ID could be the main obstacle (running a registered company, for example.)

SymbianSigned addressed this crucial issue early with talking of publishers signing for developers: for example, Handango could sign your application in addition to distributing it. However, as far as I know, this sort of solution is still unavailable or in its early stage.

Talking of freeware, I have a mixed feeling (being a commercial developer myself.) A freeware developer might release a competing free product and even gets the signing for free!?

There's an inherent conflict here - and this might explain why freeware developers have had bad experiences with SymbianSigned so far.

Another obvious dilemma is the testing process: the test-house will be payed per testing round! If an application fails some tests, it needs to get re-tested. In other words, the more fails the more money. This is apparently a wrong incentive, but it's of course difficult to find an alternative.

I think there has been plenty of time to fix the problems with end-users signing "unsigned" applications a.k.a. SymbianSigned.com repeated downtimes:

1.) replace the IBM XT powering the PKI with some proper hardware (okay, okay, that's a bit unfair and I admit I'm not exactly sure why SymbianSigned.com is down every now and then)

 
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