It appears Amazon’s realisation of its third-party Android application store is closer to launching after the retail giant started sending a “welcome pack” to developers who might be interested in submitting their work to the alternative application market.
Engadget grabbed a screenshot which underlines what is expected from developers, Amazon’s vision of what its app store will provide and submission processes.
Looking over the welcome pack, it appears that the app store is exclusive to Android, at least for now, and it’s very possible that only US customers will be able to access the store, as shown by the “Amazon.com App Store” references. This, however, could just be branding, so we will seek further clarification.
The 💜 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
Developers are not able to submit their applications as of yet, instead they are asked to submit “marketing and promotional information” to Amazon’s FTP server. The second stage is to wait until Amazon actually finish development of its “Eclipse” plug-in, only then can developers submit their applications.
Apparently, DRM is optional, the developer can choose whether Amazon enables it on their apps and Amazon will allow the uploading of promotional application videos to the app product pages, something that neither Apple or Google allow on their app stores.
The welcome pack helps developers and potential customers gain a real understanding of what Amazon is trying to achieve. If Amazon can market apps in the same way it has with its Kindle downloads, Google could suddenly have some very real competition.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.