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Amazon To Launch 'Amazon Appstore For Android'
angry tapir writes "Amazon is preparing to open an Android app store to compete with Google's Android Market, and has launched a beta portal where developers can submit applications for Android-based smartphones. The applications will be sold on the Amazon Appstore for Android, which the company expects to launch later this year. At launch, the Appstore will be available for customers in the US, and it will be compatible with Android 1.6 and higher. Users will be able to shop for applications from their PCs, which isn't possible with the existing version of Android Market, or from their smartphones, and pay with their existing Amazon account."
to get the $.01 per transaction google currently gets.
What's the point? It's easy enough to share/sell an application on Google's Android App store...
Wouldn't you want your app being recommended by Amazon while you're looking for seemingly releated stuff?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Was wondering when Amazon was going to enter the fray.
They already have a music store, selling apps isn't that big of a jump.
Already having peoples credit card numbers and the trust of most will also helps.
"Users will be able to shop for applications from their PCs, which isn't possible with the existing version of Android Market"
Guess they haven't heard about AppBrain.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/appbrain-app-market/com.appspot.swisscodemonkeys.apps
Yes, and this Users will be able to shop for applications from their PCs, which isn't possible with the existing version of Android Market, or from their smartphones, and pay with their existing Amazon account. Didn't RTFS
when the first apps will be remotely removed from phones?
Fandroids hate facts.
> to get the $.01 per transaction google currently gets.
more like 30% unfortunately for us Android developers... OK, that's shared with the carrier but still...
Some call it "fragmentation" and some call it "competition"
Unless you want everyone to carry exactly the same hardware, there is bound to be "fragmentation". Why don't they call it "fragmentation" when Chrysler parts don't fit on my Mazda?
You would think that at some point, app programmers, who from what I can tell are the only ones complaining about "fragmentation" would be happy to see lots of different platforms because it means more opportunities.
Maybe it would be easier if there were only one hardware platform for all cell phones and one hardware platform for all computers and one hardware platform for all cars. One operating system. One phone carrier. Then, life would be easy for the few hundred programmers and designers that would have jobs.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Yes, it's much better to have a single organization that can decide for me what apps I can decide to buy and sell. One that can block apps for any reason or no reason at all. All jail his Jobness
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Sell? Not exactly. Google doesn't make money selling/licensing an OS or selling apps, they make money selling ads. They prefer you get a free (as in ad-supported) app than a paid one. If you (as a developer or user) like that model, cool. But if not, too bad because the google app store only supports paid apps in 32 countries (that number was 14 until just a couple months ago).
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
in the android world, we call it "choice".
This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.
...because, lord knows, I hate the fact that I can buy the same thing at a different store for possibly a different amount of money. Life is so much easier when there's only one store and that's that.
Just in case you're missing it, this is sarcasm.
I don't see the problem, myself. If I prefer the Google store, I'll use the Google store. If I prefer the Amazon store, I'll use the Amazon store. You might also find features on the Amazon store (like buying an application as a gift for someone else) that don't exist in the Google store.
Competition is a good thing.
The more interesting thing about this store is the terms for developers - almost the same as Apple's store.
$99/Year (I think that's being waved for now)
You can choose to have apps have a DRM wrapper (of Amazons design)
Amazon gets 30% of sales
I think potentially this could become THE app store for Android, because it will be probably about as carefully maintained as Apple's App store. No way is Amazon going to let through some things like blatant copyright infringement apps that get into the Android store today. As a result the apps to be found there should be of a generally higher level of quality.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Amazon's market would be doomed to failure if the enduser had the choice between it and Android's.
If you ever actually saw the Android Market app in practice, you know that competing with it is trivial, because it is utter crap. It's the single most crash-prone piece of software on my Nexus One, is is dog slow even when it's working, the UI is inconvenient, and you can only make purchases on the device itself, and not from PC (where it's far more convenient to browse stuff, read reviews etc).
In some countries it's impossible as they're not on the market yet. Also, Google takes a cut - Amazon could take a smaller cut. And, as has been pointed out, Amazon can market apps. A lot of developers are currently complaining that best-selling apps appear high up the lists and sell even more, whereas newer stuff is way down the list and only get seen by really bored people with a lot of time on their hands.
How does this Balkanize the Android platform? Just because there's an Amazon store doesn't mean you wouldn't be able to still use Google's store. What makes you think Amazon would try to make an Amazon-only phone? Nobody would go for that, there's too many competing Android phones already.
Amazon just realizes that Google is making easy money on a weak app store, and since Android is open, they can easily try to compete. Google will have to up their game if they want to stay in the game.
Stop talking.
In this comment in a different thread (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1936596&cid=34765090, relevant portion reproduced below) you complain about the Mac App Store with regard to it being a "monopoly store."
In fact there is a regression here as now we have a monopoly store as opposed to all sorts of vendors fighting it out using all sorts of sales channels. Apple, Inc now dictates prices, margins, selections, censorship, etc.
However, in the comment to which I'm replying (relevant portion reproduced below) you complain about the Amazon App Store with regard to fragmentation and lock-in.
These stupid stores will lead to lock-in and fragmentation.
First, there's no indication that this could lead to lock-in. Amazon has not expressed any interest in pursuing exclusivity deals with carriers/device makers.
Second, what the hell! If there's only one store it's a monopoly, but if there are more than one the platform is fragmented? You can't have it both ways!
There were NO APPS!
I guess you've never heard of Symbian, then.
Infinite time means everything that can happen, will. You being you is absolutely incidental. You do not exist.
It's easy enough to share/sell an application on Google's Android App store...
Not if you're targeting Wi-Fi tablets and media players that run Android. For example, Archos 43 is supposed to be the Android counterpart to the iPod touch but doesn't have Android Market because it lacks 3G data, which as I understand it would have doubled the price of the device. (Compare the $250 Archos 43 to a $500 unlocked phone.) Is Amazon Appstore expected to work on these?
I guess you've never heard of Symbian, then.
Most cell phone customers in the United States have likewise never heard of Symbian. In this market, "smartphone" means BlackBerry, iPhone, or Android. Nokia has far less market share here than in the European Union market, and "Symbian" is confused with a sex toy.
But now there's competition. That's the silver lining I see here.
Of course, that doesn't solidify anything- the whole plan could fall apart out of the starting gate, but it could be nice.
Sent from my CR-48
I'm an Android app developer, and under the terms Amazon's currently offering, there's no way in hell I'll put my app there. There are three very serious problems with it. First, Amazon controls the pricing, not the developer - they can use your app as a loss leader. Second, they require that you give them your app and each update 14 days before you publish it anywhere else (such as on the Android Market) for their review process. That means no emergency fixes, and delayed releases, even if you're mainly publishing on the Android Market and want to put it on Amazon too. And third, it's competing with Android Market, which is preinstalled everywhere, with no users. It would be one thing if they offered more than Android Market's 70% take, but there're simply no advantages to it whatsoever.
Maybe they'll change their terms, and I'll reconsider. But the terms they're offering now are simply a bad deal for developers, and I doubt many will bite.
I write phone apps for a living. We'd love to exist on iPhone- but apple won't let us because we replace some of their functionality with better versions. They don't like that.
As for 70+M phones- Android is pretty damn close (hell, my company's app is on 20M+) its marketshare is growing, it sells more per month than iOS already, and it's branching into tablets and music players. Add that on to the fact you don't have the risk of Apple deciding to pull the rug out from under you and you'd be a fool to bet on iphone over android. You may decide to target both, but if you pick one Android is the easy decision.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?