Amazon Marks A Year Of Selling Apps

Amazon-App-storeYou have to hand it to Amazon -- they know how to sell the goods. When the company’s Android-based Amazon Appstore launched last year, it seemed to be all dressed up with nowhere to go. It had the unenviable task of luring Android device owners from the default and built-in Marketplace run (a bit haplessly) by Google/Android.

We have been down this road before. Amazon had built downloadable video and music shops to compete with Apple and others, and in some cases the experience was superior. Streaming media was a value-add for all Amazon Prime subscribers. And the music store was among the first to go DRM-free and to compete on price.

In fact, even in the app store, Amazon has been playing with a number of trialing and discounting models that Apple still can’t approach. The well-received free app of the day is a wonderful way to discover new apps risk-free. And its recommendation engine integrates app suggestions throughout the Amazon retail experience.

They already have a Test Drive feature that lets you use an app on a PC to see if you will like it on your device. Amazon says over 7.7 million minutes have been spent in the Test Drive section. In short, and despite a butt-ugly interface that still is not well tuned to devices, Amazon actually has been working on the app merchandising and discovery nut harder perhaps than some of the competition. And yet there was no natural path from digital store to device.

Obviously, the Kindle fire changed all of that. Is it surprising that game maker Glu Mobile reports that its revenues from the Amazon Appstore have increased 1000% in the four months the Fire has been in market? IDC estimates that 4.7 million Kindle Fire units were sold in late 2011. 

Amazon is celebrating the first birthday of the Appstore with a series of discounts and special offers on games and apps like Fruit Ninja, PAC-MAN, Wolfram Alpha and Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Menus. Kindle Fires will be given away to eight sweepstakes winners.

Amazon now claims 31,000 apps in its store, clearly focusing more on curation than tonnage. The company reports that in this first year Cut the Rope has been the most downloaded paid app, followed by Angry Birds and Where’s My Water. In fact, the only non-gaming apps to crack the top ten free or paid app lists were Netflix and Little Piano Free, ranked #2 and #7, respectively, among free downloads.  

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