Amazon launched its Android Appstore way back in March 2011, offering another alternative to Google Play. And now Amazon is launching it in the Land of the Rising Sun too.
The Japanese Appstore is live now, representing its seventh launch market after the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. It gives local customers access a broad selection of Android apps.
It will, of course, feature localized content though it will still include features similar to its other locations, such as the Free App of the Day, which offers a normally paid-for app for zilch. Apps and games purchased from Amazon can be used across most Android devices, including Amazon’s own Kindle Fire range of tablets.
Indeed, we recently reported that the Kindle Fire was launching in Japan, with shipments commencing on December 19…just in time for Christmas.
“The Amazon Appstore connects app and game developers across the globe with Amazon’s enormous customer base, and we’re excited to expand that audience to our millions of customers in Japan,” explains Jim Adkins, Vice President of the Amazon Appstore. “Now our customers in Japan can find all of the apps and games they’re looking for and can take advantage of popular programs like Free App of the Day.”
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The launch also follows hot on the heels of the news that Amazon is bringing its Cloud Drive storage service for videos, documents, and photos to Japan, rivaling other popular cloud-based storage services such as Dropbox and Google Drive. Amazon currently offers all users 5GB of free storage, and paid plans for Japan start from ¥800, or around $130 per year, for 20GB, which is on par with the pricing for other countries.
As for the Appstore, well, Amazon also enables developers to build apps and games using Amazon Web Service’s (AWS) platform, with the likes of GameCircle services offering Leaderboards, Achievements, Friends and Whispersync, which syncs game-state across Kindle devices. Developers can also tap Amazon’s e-commerce and payment tools like In-App Purchasing and Subscriptions.
One of the more interesting features of the Amazon Appstore is that it offers the ability to test-drive apps directly in the browser before downloading it to a mobile device, a feature that’s also being replicated by AppSurfer, which we covered earlier this week.
The Amazon Appstore is live in Japan now.
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