Amazon have announced the creation of the Amazon Appstore, a rival app-centric place to purchase applications for the increasingly popular Android mobile operating system.
Unlike rival Google’s Android Market, however, where developers can publish apps as long as it follows the company’s guidelines, Amazon will explicitly decide what is allowed on its store.
Amazon also plan to integrate the apps into its ubiquitous online retail website, with a key feature being the ability for the retail giant to determine the price of the apps hosted, unlike other platforms where the developer regulates the price. Developers are set to receive 70% of all revenues generated by their applications, with a Developer Portal also launching costing nothing for the first year. Following years will incur an annual $99 charge.
Amazon has said:
The sheer number of apps available today makes it hard for customers to find high-quality, relevant products – and developers similarly struggle to get their apps noticed.
We continue to innovate the mobile shopping experience with the Amazon Shopping app, Amazon Price Check and the recently launched Windowshop for the iPad. We have numerous Kindle apps, and customers can shop our MP3 store from their mobile devices. Our subsidiaries like IMDB and Audible also have robust mobile applications. An Appstore is a logical next step for Amazon in mobile.”
Source: Amazon blog
cc_star
Very interesting
I don’t know why Google haven’t sorted this as it seems to me that everything is there in one for or another its just that its impossible to separate the wheat from the chaff in the exisitng Android Marketplace.
Once order is instilled the future looks bright
hannes_truce
Brilliant, as long as they implement it well. It’s tough sifting through the bs to find the good apps on the android market.
rainydays458
First they start selling groceries, now they’re selling apps.
Who knows what they’ll do next..
DrNate86
If I had to guess… Sell organs.
tonyyeb
A shop called Amazon should be starting jungle sales?… I’ll get my coat.
project84music
I doubt Amazon will rest until you can buy everything ever made anywhere from them. At that point they’ll strategically undercut other companies for specific products, squeezing them out of business, until they are the only retailer left in the world. From there, they will infiltrate governments across the planet until one day we will all be loyal subjects of the Amazon regime.
Spotter5
I for one welcome our Amazonian overlords.
tonyyeb
Isn’t that basically what Tesco and Walmart are doing?
BadBoyBoogie
Excellent news. It’s not always easy to find some of the decent apps on the existing Marketplace, so hopefully a bit of competition from Amazon will improve things.
YOURMUMANDME
Considering Amazon passed “The Pedophiles Guide to Love and Pleasure” for Kindle use, I doubt very much that there will be much of a criteria for picking good apps.
Unless of course they’ve learned their lesson ?
minerwilly
Guys just use Appbrain website thats what all the geeks in the know use http://www.appbrain.com/ When signed in you can pick and chose apps to download and you sync the app upp with your phone and it automatically downloads the apps for you .
I personally dont have an issue with the official store as i always know what im going looking for before ive even clicked on it .
Personally I think this Amazon thing is stupid and just fragmenting the store, doubt theyll be doing many free apps . I have got heaps of apps and only paid for 3 Solo (guitar chords app) , Ultimate Guitar Tab and Radiotime ) theres nearly always a free version of something on the android marketplace which suits me.
bunimomike
Amazon’s idea is superb. The biggest online retailer in the world is about to push an iTunes-like app store and I’m thinking it will do very, very well. iTunes has been a digital downloads phenomenon and the fact that someone is finally welding the bonnet down enough to have a structured business model to shift apps onto Android devices (and equally market the ever-loving-shit out of it), is great news.
Finally, I think devs will turn to the Amazon App store to push their new software early on (and eventually in tandem with releases on iTunes).
Bilbo_bobbins
thanks for the tip minerwilly, just bought an Android phone so this will help massively. cheers.
ElGuason
cool beans!
ElGuason
cool beans!
Severn2j
I wonder if Amazon will be able to remove apps that I installed direct from my phone like they do with Kindles? Apart from their history of censorship, this just seems be bringing Apples “walled garden” approach to an open platform.. I’m quite happy with the way it is now, apps like AppBrain make it easy to sift the good stuff.
Bilbo_bobbins
this would be welcomed. Although I have just purchased an Andriod phone and getting used to it, I do find the Market thing a bit hard work.