Amazon To Launch 'Amazon Appstore For Android' 222
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."
Re:But why? (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
AppBrain (Score:5, Insightful)
"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 [appbrain.com]
Re:But why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Did they also announce (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fragmentation (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Fragmentation (Score:5, Insightful)
in the android world, we call it "choice".
Re:Its the 'compete' bit I dont like (Score:4, Insightful)
...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.
More interesting, mimics Apple app store (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Fragmentation (Score:4, Insightful)
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).
Re:But why? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:But why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Stop talking.
In this comment in a different thread (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1936596&cid=34765090 [slashdot.org], 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!
Re:More interesting, mimics Apple app store (Score:4, Insightful)
You may make it sound like not having such apps available is a good thing for the end users. I'd say let the end user decide on that.
It's not a matter of choice, it's a matter of noise. When you have a ton of apps like that in an app store it makes it hard to find "real" applications.
There's always choice in that you can get apps from all over. What matters more is that users finally will ALSO have the choice to try shopping without as much noise in selection. That choice is more important than any other, for normal people using a phone.
Now if you were talking about a vetting process to prevent malware from entering the store... an app should do what it says it does, no more no less. That's what it should be vetted on, and that's all it should be vetted on.
I'm sure there's some aspect of that but it can never be fully examined, but a low-pass filter is helpful to eliminate outright malware. And again, you can go elsewhere for that. Just let real users have a choice of going somewhere they are less likely to find it.
Re:Fragmentation (Score:4, Insightful)
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.