Amazon App Store Some Thoughts

One thing that has been bothering me, well not bothering more nagging away, is how easy a ride Amazon are getting over their new app store for Android.

How many times do we hear complaints, and attacks on Apple for their app store policies? All the time.

Now we have Amazon starting an Android app store where the terms of use for developers to me seem just as draconian as Apples, if not more so.

To me Amazon are controlling their store even more by taking the decision over how much a developer can charge for their app out of the developers hands. Amazon can give a paid for app away for free if they decide they want to, or decide they want to charge less than the price decided by the developer.

And granted that the initial years fee is being waved by Amazon (in order to try and attract developers), Amazon will be charging developers access to their app store. Just like Apple does, and gets heat for.

Of course we have yet to see what the approval process is like for apps to appear in the Amazon app store is like, and whether it is more open in it's workings and approvals than Apple.

Then we have have the cut taken by Amazon which is the same as Apples cut of 30%.

How could we forget the recent wave of abuse over Apples subscription policy for magazines. Especially that "unfair" policy of having an offer from a website also on the app store. Yet Amazon has similar for its apps, requiring offers and updates to also be made available on their app store if they are available on other app stores.

And yet with all this not a squeak really from the hypocritical Android fanboys. Yes they can argue "oh but you don't have to put it on the Amazon app store". But I would argue yes you do. The Amazon app store is going to be massive for Android. It will make it so easy for Android users to buy apps using their existing Amazon account. Plus Amazon is a name folks trust, and they have a massive user base. Things you can't ignore if you are a developer.

Well we will have to wait and see if any bitching happens.

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