Amazon’s Android App Store Launches: Test Drive Apps Directly From Your Browser | Hacker News Reader

Amazon’s Android App Store Launches: Test Drive Apps Directly From Your Browser

techcrunch.com

73 pointsamitt45 comments

Man, look at all those one-star reviews for Angry Brids. "My device doesn't have enough space for this app!" "Amazon won't refund my money for some book I bought!" "AT&T doesn't allow side-loading!"

How does any of this relate to the actual app? Someone should be reading these reviews and deleting them, because developers don't want reviews that have nothing to do with ther app making their 5-star app a 3-star app.

Remind me to never give anyone anything for free. They will just whine about it. Better to charge them $10,000 for the app, then charge them for a $500/hour consultant to work around the bugs. They'll whine about it, but then I would be able to afford enough alcohol to not care.

(And no, I have no Android apps. But I just can't get excited about writing one when I see how dumb the average user is.)

The Android Market has a similar problem. There is such a large proportion of reviews that are complaints about failed downloads, scare tactics from competitors ("This app installs malware!"), and feature requests ("3 stars. I'll give you four stars once you implement feature X") that it makes me wonder if people with close to 5-star ratings are just buying ratings from farms of people somehow.

I'm having trouble parsing this portion of Amazon's developer agreement:

3.a. Delivery Commitment for Apps. You will deliver electronically to us (and continue to make available during the Term all versions of all software applications, games or other digital products (including any special or collector’s editions) (i) that are designed for the Platform, (ii) for which you have the rights required under this Agreement, and (iii) that are the same versions and editions (except as otherwise provided in this Agreement) that you or your affiliates make available directly or indirectly to any Similar Service.

Does this mean that if I distribute one of my applications through the Appstore, I'm legally required to distribute all of my applications that way?

If so, no thanks. I'm perfectly happy to distribute one app through Amazon's store as an experiment, but there's no way I'm going to sign an open-ended agreement to distribute everything at prices set by Amazon.

If they want every app I write, they would need to earn that through good sales and a lack of shenanigans.

Yep. Note also that the royalty terms are apparently different, and significantly worse, than they offer for ebooks. With the Kindle 70% royalty option, you get 70% of your list price, no matter what discount they've applied, unless they're matching a lower price they found elsewhere[1]. With the app store, per the article, you get 70% of the discounted price, or 20% of the list price, whichever is greater.

It would appear that they intend to discount apps heavily, to try to get traction. Which is fine for something intended by the developer as a loss leader, but could really bite hard if applied to premium versions. But of course, they insist on access to the premium versions, if you want to use 'em to sell the loss leaders.

[1] http://207-171-168-158.amazon.com/kdpforums/entry.jspa?categ...

Wow - that's a total bummer.

> Does this mean that if I distribute one of my applications through the Appstore, I'm legally required to distribute all of my applications that way?

That's not (quite) what it looks like to me: I think clause (iii) is just saying that you can't list an app on a competing service unless you list the same version on Amazon's app store. Effectively, it seems they get to sell any app that you want to sell on another app store -- but they're not asserting rights over all future Android apps you might write.

(This raises a question I don't know the answer to: is it possible to distribute Android applications without an app store, in the style of "download this bundle from our site and transfer it to your phone"? Or do the non-developer versions of Android out there require that apps be signed by a central authority before they'll execute them?)

people can download and install .apk packages from wherever they want.

If this takes off, it will be HUGE for Android. Everyone will be able to test drive Android apps! If I was going to buy a new smart phone and I had the choice between buying an iPhone on iFaith alone as compared to actually checking out real Android apps before buying the phone, I would probably go for Android simply because I know what I am getting into!

This actually makes me want to try Android (I am an iPhone user)! But I don't live in the States, so… whatever, at least I can fire up a VPN and give those apps a go.

Come to the dark side. We have better notifications, customization, and sideloading of apps. :-)

Also, (mostly important if you're not on a Mac) you don't have to use iTunes!

Not just yet, the force is still strong with me. But with this latest announcement of Amazon, a great disturbance of the force could be felt :-)

It seems the App Store is disabled for european (or german atleast) customers.

Sometimes i wish we were back in 1998 where the Internet was the same everywhere. :(

The store is down for everyone right now, so if it just redirects to the homepage you should try again later..

It's back up now:

     • Amazon Appstore is only available to customers located in the United States

So I guess you're right :(

I'm from Belgium but I even put a one-click address in the US, and the apps can't be downloaded (even free ones).

But you are still not able to use it if you are based in Germany. I even opened an account at amazon.com but they still wouldn't let me use the service ("Your location is currently not supported" or something).

This is why everyone (including those who love their iProducts) should hope Android becomes/remains successful. Innovation like this only comes when the competition is fierce. Being able to test drive apps on the web site itself looks like a killer feature (as long as it works reasonably well). I'd love to see someone compete with Apple's App Store and raise the bar on the selling experience, if only to see how Apple will respond to it.

I hardly see further fragmenting the Android ecosystem as being overly innovative.

Sorry, what part of my comment are you replying to?

The part where I said the Amazon App Store's Test Drive feature was innovative? Or something else?

Just searched for "Amazon App Store", it's way too early in the morning (in ireland) for freaky results

http://i.imgur.com/2W3UK.png

Dude, WTF!

So serious around here, was referring to the picture...

You're getting downvoted because "Dude, WTF" doesn't add anything constructive to the conversation.

Doesn't look like service is available outside of US at the moment, guess Europeans are second class.

Everything I've seen, they're calling it "Appstore" one word.

There's a dropdown category called "Amazon App Store" for US users next to the search bar on amazon.com

I'm noticing a lack of Android-ness with the Amazon apps. For example:

I just downloaded the Amazon store on my Nexus One and started downloading Angry Birds Rio. The first thing I noticed is that, while downloading, there's no ongoing notification like the Android Market has. If I navigate away from the Amazon Appstore there's no indication I'm still downloading anything at all. There was also no notification when it finished downloading; I had to manually re-open the Amazon Appstore, then it gave me the standard "installing an app" screen.

Even though I have the Amazon Kindle app installed and syncing, Amazon hasn't set up an entry in the Android "Accounts" list, as the official Twitter and Facebook apps have.

Also, the "menu" widgets are non-standard. This may seem like a minor quibble, but it just adds to the "We're Amazon, we do things our own way" vibe I'm getting.

I still plan on occasionally using the Amazon Appstore, and I can't speak to the "test apps in your browser" functionality yet, but I can't see it replacing the Android Market long-term.

You must stay signed in to your Amazon account to use the app though.

I can't see how Google or the EFF would be pleased about it if it's for analytics.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?&no...

Does it mean you can't use the applications offline?

Not sure what it means, but I just launched Angry Birds Rio and it ran fine in airplane mode.

I think this could potentially be huge - the Market is less than awesome. The integration with the Amazon Experience has the potential to change completely the way people find apps - recommendations for apps related to whatever I'm searching for could totally change the way I find them.

Not being able to use them offline would suck though.

Seems the test-drive feature is disabled or not working (for me at least). The tech behind how they got this to work is cool and could end up being a competitive advantage vs. other app stores.

Why does Techcrunch never provide any deeplinks? It's annoying as hell.

On my device (Motorola Droid), you need to first enable unsigned applications in the system menu. Amazon guides you through this process very well on their website, but still, I suspect that a lot of nontechnical folks will dropoff due to the complex one-time installation process.

Do any people with better droid-fu know if it always has to be this way? Will future version of the Android App Store be able to have a more seemless install process?

There will probably pre-installed versions of the store on some devices, but besides that it's the only option because selling an app store through the android market is permitted.

I agree that I believe the main focus for amazon has always been pre-installs on devices - similar to how they now pre-install the amazon mp3 store on a large number of devices.

It also isn't a case of enabling unsigned applications (I believe all applications still require a developer signature), but a case of enabling installs from somewhere besides the google android market. Google won't let other "app store" type apps on the android market on purpose, so it is unlikely that the rules will be relaxed or changed unless they have a philosophical/competitive change of heart.

I think this is going to be wildly successful. The one free premiere app each day is going to have people coming back frequently. Once they get some carrier/handset agreements to have the Appstore preloaded, this is going to blow up.

And I think it's the way it should be. Google needs to concentrate on the platform, let Amazon and their expertise in ecommerce handle this part.

On one hand, I'm thinking fragmentation is a problem.

On the other hand, Google has been slow on improving the Android Market -- interface doesn't allow discovery of noteworthy apps and I can't sell apps from my country yet.

While the "Test Drive" is cool, the killer thing is that apps are reviewed, which should lead to much better quality. Just submitted our app this morning, and the process was pretty nice.

I wonder when Amazon is going to release their own Android device?

So, this competitor of google's own app store might be the best thing that happened to android platform.

It also doesn't work on AT&T.

I'm using it on my AT&T Nexus One right now. Maybe there's some restrictions on actual AT&T-branded/subsidized handsets?

Android phones you buy directly from AT&T have sideloading disabled. I believe you have to root the phone to turn this feature back on.

I can't see any App Store links yet, maybe regional rollout?

Works for me: http://www.amazon.com/mobile-apps/b/ref=sa_menu_adr_app1?ie=...

(from Ireland)

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