Amazon app store set for UK summer launch

Amazon’s App Store is coming to the UK this summer, as the web retailer looks to offer Android device owners across Europe an alternative to the Google Play store.

Amazon

The company has begun inviting European developers to build apps for the online portal, which is also being launched in France, Italy, Spain and Germany, with more locations planned later this year.

The store launched in the US last March and mainly provides apps for Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet device as well as other Android devices. While Amazon has yet to confirm when the Kindle Fire will be released, if at all across Europe, it is likely that the app store’s international expansion will be followed by an official date in the next few months.

Amazon declined to comment on marketing activity for the app store’s launch.

The online retailer will be hoping the move will mirror the success Apple’s iTunes store for its iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices and make it easier push games and apps to users.

The store will be seen as a direct rival to Google Play, the search company’s wholly-owned portal, which was rebranded earlier this year to better emphasise the entertainment slant to its app offering.

The company will need to agree licensing deals with movie and TV content owners in each country if it is to fully replicate the scale of its US model.

Jim Adkins, vice president of the Amazon Appstore, says the move opens “the door to even more opportunity by expanding app sales outside of the US.

He adds: “We see tremendous potential for current developers in our distribution program to grow with the international expansion. We also encourage new developers to join and participate in the platform’s growth.”

Recommended

Tomorrow’s stars put to test

Webops Temp

It would be good to know how the Marketing Academy scholars’ psychometric reports compare with the Diagonal Thinking Self-Assessment. This is a free online test, launched in 2008, and its data reveals that only 10% of the population are ‘diagonal thinkers’ and achieve top scores in both the linear and lateral exercises. A five-year study […]

Unilever Waterworks

Unilever launches charitable Facebook app

Rosie Baker

Unilever is to launch a Facebook Timeline app designed to connect consumers with aid workers in developing countries as part of a not-for-profit programme designed to raise funds for safe drinking water.