Amazon Appstore Thread

[benfgsg]

So... I really like the Amazon Appstore. It's more organized than the Android Market and it features a free paid app of the day. I think everyone should have it.

It adds competition within Android and as a result will benefit us, consumers. So if you're out there and you haven't downloaded it, I highly recommend you do.

 

[KOLIO]

+1

 

[mikedt]

App Store installs OK, but when I try to register it expects a credit card number from a western bank, even though I'm only interested in free apps. It's also extremely slow, over a minute just to show any apps. Google Market has no competition here.

 

[jamor]

Amazon App Store never asked me for a credit card. It's also very fast for me.

Love the free app of the day!

 

[treefq]

I guess you have never ordered anything from amazon? All I has to fi was login using my amazon global account and it went. But I am a frequent amazon shopper. What is bugging me is the cheesy 1 and 2 start apps they are putting up. Look at todays.

 

[mikedt]

^^^^^^^

I've never used Amazon before, not even when I was in the UK. I have actually made an Amazon login account now with my address in China, without payment information. I've even managed to find some free apps, BUT when I try to obtain a free app, it says I need to verify payment information... WTF!!! The store is still loading painfully slow as well.

BTW Amazon do actually operate officially in China at http://www.amazon.cn/ so I can't understand this requirement for a western credit card. I have UnionPay debit cards from Chinese banks.

 

[benfgsg]

I'm not too sure about your problem, I know the Amazon Appstore doesn't have the best support in Canada and the U.K. from what I read in this article:
Work-Around Discovered for Amazon Appstore Users Outside of US
maybe this is also a problem in China, but according to the article it will fix the issue with free apps. I hope this helps

 

[MikeekiM]

OK...So here's an interesting question...

If I have two smartphones that I legitimately use...one that is used for work purposes, and one that I use for personal purposes...

Can I install the Amazon Android AppStore on both phones using my Amazon account and install any/all apps associated with my account on either/both phones?

This is more of a curiosity at this point... One of my phones is an AT&T phone (which cannot run the Amazon AppStore)...but it still has me curious...if I had two non-AT&T phones, could I do this?

 

[benfgsg]

hmmm... that's a very good question. I have a Verizon Droid 2. I can snatch my roommates Mytouch 3G slide when I get back home, once I get out of class I will test this out and get back to you

 

[MikeekiM]

Cool...thanks! Looking forward to see what you report back...

I guess the same question could be asked for Android Market...If I have two phones with the exact same gmail account set up on the phones, wouldn't I be able to install all paid-for apps on both phones?

Thanks for checking... I'd do it myself if my 2nd phone was not an AT&T...

 

[txrxio]

Amazon refused to let me download any apps (only done free ones so far) until I had associated a payment option with their 1-click system. The 1-click system is turned off on my account and I can still download apps, so I don't see the significance for this extra step.

 

[Yeahha]

I guess the same question could be asked for Android Market...If I have two phones with the exact same gmail account set up on the phones, wouldn't I be able to install all paid-for apps on both phones?

With the Android market you can download any paid apps on any phone you log in to your google account with. I think you have to use the gmail address to set up the phone but on the first market sync it will display all the apps you have purchased previously

I don't see how an additional app store will driver competition in prices as app prices are set by the dev not google.

 

[MikeekiM]

Amazon refused to let me download any apps (only done free ones so far) until I had associated a payment option with their 1-click system. The 1-click system is turned off on my account and I can still download apps, so I don't see the significance for this extra step.

I was never asked for my credit card... But I think that it is because I am an existing Amazon customer who purchased something (and have a credit card associated with my account already)...

 

[txrxio]

I already had several payment options saved in my Amazon account, but none of them was associated with the 1-click. I've always been too afraid of accidentally ordering something to even enable it. Wonder why I got that but other people didn't.

 

[ari-free]

I guess you have never ordered anything from amazon? All I has to fi was login using my amazon global account and it went. But I am a frequent amazon shopper. What is bugging me is the cheesy 1 and 2 start apps they are putting up. Look at todays.

They are very highly rated popular games on Android market and Symbian (we're talking millions of downloads here) so that's probably why they picked them.
Unfortunately, the reason why they are so popular is because they are for low end phones that are prevalent overseas and Amazon users are more tech savvy.

 

[ari-free]

I don't see how an additional app store will driver competition in prices as app prices are set by the dev not google.

but they can be set by Amazon.

 

[benfgsg]

I was trying it and from what I saw, you can't. The Amazon Appstore registers a specific phone per amazon account. The only way I could have signed out my Amazon account and would be to deactivate it for the device. My roommate keeps on taking his phone back to make calls so I haven't really had a chance to test out the marketplace, but it seems more likely than the Amazon Appstore....


Actually... it took me a while to check, I got distracted by a game of Nazi Zombies lol

but I couldn't get it to work with the Android Market either. The market seems to recognize which gmail account is set up to the phone number as well. Sorry, I have it a pretty good shot.

 

[benfgsg]

but they can be set by Amazon.

Right, they can set the prices, but looking at the economics of two app markets, competition is good. It pushes for innovation and both app markets will work against each other to make better user experiences.

 

[seepage]

They are very highly rated popular games on Android market and Symbian (we're talking millions of downloads here) so that's probably why they picked them.
Unfortunately, the reason why they are so popular is because they are for low end phones that are prevalent overseas and Amazon users are more tech savvy.

Damn those low tech overseas morons.

 

[ari-free]

by overseas I don't mean a phone commonly found in Germany or Finland. I mean a phone that Borat's uncle would use.

 

[A.Nonymous]

They are very highly rated popular games on Android market and Symbian (we're talking millions of downloads here) so that's probably why they picked them.
Unfortunately, the reason why they are so popular is because they are for low end phones that are prevalent overseas and Amazon users are more tech savvy.

I was just thinking the exact same thing before I read your post. You have to be more tech savvy just to install Amazon's market so it's appealing to a more tech savvy segment than the Android market as a whole. It's interesting that an app that gets 4 stars in the Marketplace gets 1 star for Amazon.

 

[seepage]

I was just thinking the exact same thing before I read your post. You have to be more tech savvy just to install Amazon's market so it's appealing to a more tech savvy segment than the Android market as a whole. It's interesting that an app that gets 4 stars in the Marketplace gets 1 star for Amazon.

Yes the only difference between amazon users and marketplace users is they are more tech savvy

 

[ari-free]

I noticed a new feature on some of the reviews. Amazon can now verify if the reviewer actually bought the app they are reviewing. Hopefully we'll be able to filter for those reviews since they will be more helpful than even the 'helpful' reviews. I've noticed some bad reviews for apps simply because they don't agree with the concept or ideology.

Android market requires you to install before commenting which is good but 99% of those reviews are useless.

 

[ari-free]

I was just thinking the exact same thing before I read your post. You have to be more tech savvy just to install Amazon's market so it's appealing to a more tech savvy segment than the Android market as a whole. It's interesting that an app that gets 4 stars in the Marketplace gets 1 star for Amazon.

They are all Americans so they also have subsidized phones with the latest features.
There's different levels of 'tech' savvy. A 13 year old girl on her t-mobile phone may be familiar with the latest youtube videos, facebook, yelp, foursquare and everything that's hot on the Web right now but wouldn't mess with rooting her phone. She'll know all about the amazon appstore from her friends and not because she checks out phandroid every day.

 

[Yeahha]

but they can be set by Amazon.

Right, they can set the prices, but looking at the economics of two app markets, competition is good. It pushes for innovation and both app markets will work against each other to make better user experiences.

I do not see how this is a good thing. Amazon requires a dev to submit a list price when and they promise the dev at least 20% of the list price. This seems to me that for the consumer we may be able to pick up apps at a discounted price but the dev will be getting the short end of the stick. I don't see this a competition. If the prices are set to the same as the android market amazon will be taking the same share as google does for apps sold in the market. I have also not seen anything about if the consumer will be able to redownload apps when the change phones or do a factory reset.

On top of this the yearly fee for a dev to have apps on the amazon app store will be $99, currently it is waived, while to publish apps to the market you must pay a one time fee of $25. If I were independently developing apps and had to choose which store to publish them to I would be inclined to publish them to the market as I know what they would sell for, the cost to publish there is less, and updates could be pushed out much quicker.