Hi Guys

This time I wanna talk a little bit about my recent experiences with the amazon app store.

Maybe this is interesting for some of you, who decided to publish their own apps and games for android and looking for alternatives.

I will make another article about some other stores in the future, but this time, just a detailled amazon review from a developer.

Currently Amazon App Store is free for publishers .. on the start screen they tell you, that they save you the 99$ fee for the first year .. I am not sure, if I will stay at amazon store, if they wanna charge me 99$ per year .. that's not a small amount for an indy developer but is hard earned money - and from my point it's a lot of them.

But currently it's free, so just sign up, if you like.

You will need to make your graphics fit the amazon sizes .. we know that :-) But it's not that hard, if you already released at another store it should be sufficient, to just make some copies of your Icons.

If you want to attach a video to your uploads - you can't use youtube - you have to upload it to their own server, AND you are not allowed to show any other store EXCEPT if you ALSO show the amazon store. That's why my games there don't have a video .. oh, I git a video to upload there .. :-) have to do later :-)

Once you are ready and submitted your app: cool down and have a break - along break. Amazon approval will need some days up to one week.

And that is also true for every update you publish for your game.

Ok, but now, I come to the point: Is Amazon worth the work?

I have uploaded free games and paid games to amazon. To be honest, I didn't uploaded some free version of paid games, I wanted to try that out. So Tablet Tower Defense is only available as paid at Amazon.

Guess what: It sells better than in Market, where there is also the free version available. I didn't expect that. Directly at the start there was a huge download impact of Tablet Tower Defense, it was sold 20 times right on the first day.

Sadly - it didn't proceed. I guess my game was on for an amazon promo where you can get a game for free in during a short period of time.

Lastly even Robo Miner found its way to amazon.

In compare to other stores, amazon seams to be a small niche. If your app is approved, they tell you, that it will be reviewed seperatly for kindle.
I don't know what that mean exactly because I know from a customer, that Mindesweeper: Unlimited! was available for Kindle Fire as soon as it was reviewed for the appstore.

Maybe they mean the original Kindle with the Black/White Screen. (My games will not suit that :-) )

The Amazon App Store seems to be better suited for paid apps - maybe that's because visitors of amazon are already willing to buy something - on the other hand, you cannot be sure, because there is not much info they gave you. Statstics show only downloads. no views, no installs, no geographical information - and the information, they give you lags by about 24 hours.

So: Should you publish on amazon? To be honest: why not. It's another way to spread your app to the world and Kindle Users will not be able to use Google Market, so if you want to reach them you have to use the amazon app store.

The yearly fee .. well, it's not sure, if they WILL charge such a fee .. I don't hope so, but if they will, that will clearly hold away many developers from amazon.

Hopefully, this words has given you some insight about Amazon App Store.

Wanna have some numbers? Ok :-) I am at Amazon Store for around 3 weeks. Robo Miner was the last game submitted it's online there for 5 days.

Robo Miner (free): 134 downloads
Shapr! (paid): 0 Downloads
Minesweeper Unlimited (paid): 2 downloads
Minesweeper Unlimited (free): 118 downloads
Tablet Tower defense (paid): 25 downloads
Shape Masher (paid): 0 downloads

You see, that numbers are not very amazing, but I have to admit, that Tablet Tower Defense is purchased more often than at android market, but 20 of them was on the first day, where I guess, there was some promo.