Amazon App Store - Good for the Android Ecosystem?

[JohnDroid]

To say that the Android Market could be improved would be an understatement. A number of App-Assistance sites have sprung up to fill the hole that Google has been unable to fill: Clean interface, Information you need, Screenshots, Ratings, etc.

But they all live a little to be desired as well. That's where Amazon is hoping to have an impact on the market. They seem to think they can develop and administer an App store that will change the buying experience. And at the same time, I'm sure they are hoping to improve upon the Android experience to stick it to Apple just a bit and keep the competing iPad from becoming a threat to their digital book sales at the same time.

So, will this be a Win/Win for both Android and Amazon? Let's hope so... and just to sweeten the pot a little bit more, Business Insider has a few points as to WHY this might be a match made in heaven for everyone involved.

• Amazon has a great software backend, they should be able to improve Application Discovery easily.
• Amazon accepts payments in more countries then Google. A problem that has kept Google from opening up the market to other countries and has (some speculate) increased piracy.
• Amazon has a great website to promote Apps on. Lots of eyeballs.
• Amazon has the ability to set their own rules, so possibly no 24 hour return.
• Amazon has incentive to make sure that only quality products show up in their market. Money. They get nothing for supporting free apps, while Google does. So quality should be much higher.

I'm very excited to see what Amazon has cooking for this app store. What are your feelings? Looking forward to it or think it's a bad idea? Let us know!

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[DF Smod]

I think it is a great idea too, 10X better than letting Verizon do it...Amazon is a great company and I hope they can make the app experience a better one

 

[forkup]

I look forward to any improvement, there's no excuse for google not fixing their own app store

 

[Zippster]

I think it is a great idea too, 10X better than letting Verizon do it...Amazon is a great company and I hope they can make the app experience a better one

X2 Couldnt agree more.

 

[justin82]

I think it is a great idea too, 10X better than letting Verizon do it...Amazon is a great company and I hope they can make the app experience a better one

+1.. looking forward to see what they have to offer

 

[johnomaz]

As long as all the app stores are universal as in they all offer the same apps. If its just a new portal for the appstore, I'll be happy. I personally like AppBrain, but would probably switch to Amazon if its a better UI.

 

[JohnDroid]

As long as all the app stores are universal as in they all offer the same apps. If its just a new portal for the appstore, I'll be happy. I personally like AppBrain, but would probably switch to Amazon if its a better UI.

My understanding is that Amazon will be very selective with the apps that it allows in it's store. So I don't think it'll be universal. Expect only the cream of the crop to appear in the Amazon App Store.

 

[SSHGuru]

Amazon does everything very well. I'd welcome them doing it.

 

[Droidfish]

I think it's a good thing, too. If for nothing else, to spur google into upping their game with the android market. Competition means more choices which in turn means happy consumers.

 

[debdroid1a]

As long as all the app stores are universal as in they all offer the same apps. If its just a new portal for the appstore, I'll be happy. I personally like AppBrain, but would probably switch to Amazon if its a better UI.

My understanding is that Amazon will be very selective with the apps that it allows in it's store. So I don't think it'll be universal. Expect only the cream of the crop to appear in the Amazon App Store.

"very selective" Then there would be very few apps there and not enoug revenue for Amazon. And some developers would be reluctant to go to Amazon to list their app if they thought it was going to be like Apple too much. That isn't what I want personally. And those who had apps removed from Apple won't got to Amazon for fear of the App Police.
I'd hope they would make sure us as users don't have problems with the apps though. That's the only App Police I want.

I think it would be a great thing to have an Amazon Android App market. I would love it.

However, I do see them allowing free apps. They have free e-books for the Kindle. It promotes their "store". For example, if you go to the list of Kindle section for the top 100 free kindle books, you also see the top 100 paid kindle books. They have 2 columns on the page, one for paid and one for free. It lists them that way through the entire 100 list. I have Kindle on my Droid and I have both paid and free e-books from Amazon. It benefits both of us.
A lot of free apps on the Android market now are decent apps. So I would see any app market having them.

 

[its.mike]

Its basically Apple's App Market for Android, same fee's and the dev's are forced you use their DRM. Apps can be yanked at any time at Amazon's sole discretion. They may not allow you redownload an app in the event you upgrade. This is up to the dev's

Yeah that's way better than what Verzion wants to do.

 

[Big Ry]

I don't get where the hate for the android app store comes from. Sure, some added search and sort functionality would be great, but the search doesn't suck. And there ARE plenty of reviews, ratings, and screen shots. Where does this misinformation come from?