The Amazon Appstore for Android is an app store for the Android operating
system operated by Amazon.com. It was opened on March 22, 2011 and was made
available in nearly 200 countries. Developers are paid 70% of the list
price of the app or in-app purchase. On September 28, 2011, Amazon launched
the Kindle Fire tablet. The tablet, designed for media consumption in the
Amazon ecosystem, relies solely on the Amazon Appstore for its marketplace,
eschewing Google Play. Alongside the tablet was a new design for the Amazon
Appstore designed to better integrate with the tablet's user interface.
On June 18, 2014, BlackBerry announced an official relationship with Amazon,
which includes access to the Amazon Appstore in BlackBerry 10.3.
Features The Amazon Appstore includes the "Free
App of the Day" feature. Every day, an application, frequently a game, is
offered for free. On the launch day, this game was Angry Birds Rio, in itself
a promotional game. On The European launch day the free app was Angry Birds.
The Free App of the Day feature makes an exception to Amazon's payments, instead
giving the developer none of the list price during the featured day.
The store's "Test Drive" feature allowed users to try an application in their web
browser by launching a virtual copy of Android in the Amazon EC2 cloud for half
an hour. The Test Drive service was decommissioned in 2015, Amazon saying
that the service had been in decline, partly due to many apps not supporting
the feature, and the increasing prevalence of the “free-to-play”
business model making it obsolete. In May 2013, Amazon introduced Amazon
Coins as a form of payment on the store. Number of applications
When the Appstore for Android launched in March 2011 it had about 3,800 apps.
In June 2014, the app store had seen significant growth since June 2013,
tripling the app selection from 80,000 to 240,000. As of June 2015, the app
store has nearly 334,000 apps. Reception
Shortly after the Amazon Appstore launch, the International Game
Developers Association published an open letter expressing concerns that were
primarily aimed at Amazon's distribution terms. The main concerns about the
conditions were that Appstore terms force developers to permanently lower
their AppStore prices if ever they do promotions on other stores, and that
Amazon could choose to lower the price of an application while deciding to
reduce the developer's share without having to ask permission. Following this
address, Amazon clarified the Appstore developer agreement, but this did not
assuage the IGDA's concerns, which declared that "Amazon’s terms represent
a threat to game developers". In July 2011, the Swedish developer
Bithack pulled its Apparatus application from the Appstore and published an open
letter explaining that the store was a "disaster" for indie developers. The
main problems related to the very slow review process, the absence of any means
to filter unsupported devices, and that Amazon changed the price of the
application without consulting the developer, leading to the IGDA
reiterating its warnings concerning Amazon's policy once again.
The Amazon Appstore does have an advantage over other app stores. Its
free app of the day appeals to bargain-conscious users. Its integration
with any Android device means Fire tablets users, that normally only use
this app store, that move to future Amazon smartphones and tablets may use
their Fire tablet apps in their future Android devices.
Accusation of trademark infringement by Apple
Apple filed a lawsuit against Amazon for using a similar name to the Apple App
Store. Amazon claimed that the term was too generic to be trademarked, and asked
the judge to dismiss the suit. Apple responded to Amazon's attempted
dismissal of the lawsuit by claiming that Amazon was tarnishing the trademark
by using the name. A federal judge denied Apple's request for a preliminary
injunction, disagreeing with Amazon's claim that the term is generic, and
citing that Apple had not established "a likelihood of confusion" with Amazon's
services to obtain an injunction. Apple changed its complaint after Amazon
started advertising the Kindle Fire, now saying that Amazon is trying to confuse
customers further by dropping the “for Android” part of “Amazon Appstore for
Android.” In the amended complaint, Apple wrote that “Amazon’s use is also
likely to lessen the goodwill associated with Apple’s App Store service and Apple
products designed to utilize Apple’s App Store service by associating Apple’s App
Store service with the inferior qualities of Amazon’s service.”
In January 2013, Apple's claims were rejected by a US District judge, who
argued that the company presented no evidence that Amazon had "[attempted] to
mimic Apple’s site or advertising", or communicated that its service "possesses
the characteristics and qualities that the public has come to expect from the
Apple APP STORE and/or Apple products." In July 2013, Apple dropped the case.
See also List of mobile software distribution
platforms Google Play
App Store BlackBerry World
References Amazon Appstore Features for Android
Developers - Amazon Appstore has a number of unique features compared with
the more well-established Android Market External links
Official website Official website
Android markets at DMOZ