Amazon today is taking a step into social gaming with the launch of Amazon Coins, its new virtual currency that is now live in the U.S. To kick it off, Amazon announced that it would put $5 worth of the currency — equivalent to 500 Coins — into all Kindle Fire users’ accounts to use on apps and in-app purchases on its platform. The company says that this is equivalent to “tens of millions of dollars” worth of Amazon Coins.

Coins, which were first announced in February, are the company’s move into an area that has been a strong way for app publishers to generate revenue through their apps. In that sense, the launch serves a two-fold purpose for Amazon: a way of encouraging developers to come to its platform (something Amazon has already been working on), and to spur more revenue generation.

A lot of the talk in virtual currency of late has been around the potential for bitcoin and other new monetary instruments fuelled by a network effect. But before bitcoin became the buzz, there were already a number of other virtual currency networks run by Facebook, Zynga and many more, with aim being to spend the “money” on gaming and other apps on their platforms.

Unlike bitcoin, and more like Amazon Coins, most virtual currency is based on users redeeming standard currencies for “virtual” ones on the network in question. This money can then be used to buy new features in a game, or extend your life, or to send “virtual gifts” to friends. One idea here, I think, is that users are more likely to spend money when it’s less transparent that they are doing so; in Amazon’s case, 500 Coins sounds a lot more exciting than $5. Another is that it ties a user more closely in with a particular game and a particular platform. Amazon Coins will give Amazon a way of more reliably monetizing users longer-term.

Amazon Coins is an extension of other social services that Amazon has added to its app platform. Specifically, Game Connect lets developers list virtual goods for sale on Amazon.com — a way of also marketing those games themselves; and GameCircle is a kind of social network that lets users measure their achievements in games against their friends and other players. On top of that, Amazon also allos for in-app purchases using real-world money as well.

Amazon says that it will be offering discounts of 10% to those users who buy Coins in bulk. Developers will get a standard 70% revenue share on all coin spend.

This looks like it is just the beginning of Amazon Coins, which the company says will extend to other services on the platform — and likely outside of the U.S. over time, given that virtual currency has proven popular outside of the U.S. in markets like Asia and Europe.

“Today we are giving Kindle Fire owners $5 worth of Coins to spend on new apps and games, or to purchase in-app items, such as recipes in iCookbook, song collections in SongPop or mighty falcon bundles in Angry Birds Star Wars. And with discounts of up to 10% when you buy Coins, this is a great way for customers to save money when they buy apps, games and in-app items,” said Mike George, Vice President of Apps and Games at Amazon, in a statement. “We will continue to add more ways to earn and spend Coins on a wider range of content and activities—today is Day One for Coins.”

Whether that will ever include making purchases on Amazon.com with Amazon Coins remains to be seen — but it seems that in any case Amazon Coins will be one more way that Amazon will build out its e-commerce empire ever further.

Release below.

Amazon Coins Now Available for Kindle Fire Customers
Every Kindle Fire owner in the U.S. will find $5 worth of free Coins deposited directly into their Amazon account

Customers can also purchase Coins in bulk and receive a discount up to 10%

Tens of millions of dollars worth of Amazon Coins are now in customers’ accounts to spend on developers’ apps

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May. 13, 2013– —(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today announced that customers can now use Amazon Coins to purchase apps, games and in-app items in the Amazon Appstore and on Kindle Fire. To celebrate the launch, existing and new Kindle Fire customers in the U.S. have had 500 free Coins—a $5 value—deposited into their Amazon accounts today. For customers, Amazon Coins is an easy way to purchase apps and in-app items on Kindle Fire, and for developers it’s another opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increased monetization. With discounts of up to 10% for purchasing Coins in bulk, it’s also an opportunity for customers to save money on their app and game purchases. Customers can purchase Coins by visiting amazon.com/coins.

“Today we are giving Kindle Fire owners $5 worth of Coins to spend on new apps and games, or to purchase in-app items, such as recipes in iCookbook, song collections in SongPop or mighty falcon bundles in Angry Birds Star Wars. And with discounts of up to 10% when you buy Coins, this is a great way for customers to save money when they buy apps, games and in-app items,” said Mike George, Vice President of Apps and Games at Amazon. “We will continue to add more ways to earn and spend Coins on a wider range of content and activities—today is Day One for Coins.”

Amazon Appstore developers will earn their standard 70% revenue share when customers make purchases using Amazon Coins. No Coins-specific changes are required for developers with apps and games currently in the Amazon Appstore. Developers not yet in the Amazon Appstore should submit their app today through the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Portal (https://developer.amazon.com/welcome.html).

Amazon Coins is the latest offering in an array of services that make Amazon the most complete end-to-end ecosystem for building, monetizing and marketing their apps and games. These capabilities include:

The ability for app developers to use Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) technology platform for their infrastructure needs. Building blocks such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and Amazon DynamoDB allow developers to focus on what differentiates their app rather than the undifferentiated heavy lifting of infrastructure.
App submission for distribution to nearly 200 countries globally enables developers to reach millions more Amazon customers worldwide.
In-App Purchasing on Kindle Fire, Mac, PC and web-based games. This enables developers to sell virtual items in their apps and games while allowing their end users to simply use their Amazon accounts to make the purchase.
GameCircle, which includes capabilities like Achievements, Leaderboards, Friends and Whispersync for syncing games across devices, and leads to better engagement with games.
Game Connect, which lets developers list their virtual goods for sale on Amazon, increasing discoverability of their games and making the purchase of virtual goods as easy and convenient as possible for customers, leading to increased monetization for developers.
About Amazon.com

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including http://www.amazon.com, http://www.amazon.co.uk, http://www.amazon.de, http://www.amazon.co.jp, http://www.amazon.fr, http://www.amazon.ca, http://www.amazon.cn, http://www.amazon.it, http://www.amazon.es and http://www.amazon.com.br. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

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Amazon quietly launched its Appstore in China this weekend in a surprise move that paves the way for the rollout of Kindle devices in that country.

At the same time, Amazon also debuted its Chinese-language Web site for developers (link via Google Translate), promising that they will soon have access to customers in 200 countries.

A Sina Tech article (link via Google Translate) outlined why the Amazon Appstore might be an attractive alternative to Google Play for Chinese developers. Reasons include: easier access (Google Play isn’t widely available in China and most developers sell through third-party app stores); a more open and “friendly” environment (the article cited Kongregate’s 2011 ban as an example of problems with Google Play’s TOS); a worldwide customer base; and an attractive revenue sharing model.

China had not been included in the list of 200 countries, including Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea, that Amazon recently said it would bring the Appstore to. In addition to the Kindle reading app and e-books, messaging apps are currently available for download, as well as popular games like Angry Birds and Temple Run. Amazon says it will offer popular games and apps from Chinese developers like Tencent and Sina.

The launch of the Amazon Appstore in China comes less than a month after the company rolled out Cloud Drive there. The Kindle Store was launched in China at the end of last year, at the same time the Kindle iPhone and iPad apps became available to download for users in that country.

There have been years of speculation that Amazon will finally release Kindle hardware in China, but the launch of its Amazon Appstore there is the most concrete step so far. Another clue is the possibility that a $99 Kindle Fire 7″ tablet will begin shipping this year. The low price point would help the device compete in China, where tablets are often sold for less than $100.

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Amazon doesn’t share details on how well its Amazon Appstore apps sell, but according to mobile app analytics firm App Annie, the app marketplace is seeing growing traction among developers. The company surveyed over 1,500 developers, and found that 22.5 percent of them were now publishing to the Amazon Appstore, and half of that group (50 percent) cited the game category on the Amazon Appstore as their leading revenue driver.

Previous reports have confirm roughly the same thing: that Android developers are turning to Amazon’s Appstore in greater numbers, and are seeing the benefits. Amazon Appstore’s revenue per user tops that of Google Play, or even iOS, in some cases. Last summer, for example, mobile gaming startup TinyCo, was saying that its revenue per user was higher on Amazon than on iTunes or Google Play. However, another report from Flurry said that iTunes was number one, and Amazon was in second place in terms of its revenue generation capabilities. Flurry had found that for every $1 spent on the iOS store, Amazon’s store generated $0.89, and Google Play $0.23.

But this was over a year ago; App Annie itself said this month that Apple’s was still the store to beat, in terms of revenue.

Today’s report also found that top paid iOS and Google Play applications have higher average price points than those on Amazon. Comparing the average price of the top 400 paid apps, the company noted that Amazon’s average was $1.73 compared with $2.21 on iPhone, $3.39 on iPad, and $3.55 on Google Play.

However, it might be a little early to paint such a rosy picture, depending on whose data you believe more. For instance, App Annie competitor Distimo also released a report this month, examining similar trends among the two leading Android app marketplaces. Its findings were a bit different.

Although it too saw Amazon’s influence growing, it found that overall, Google Play was still beating on revenue. Distimo said that the number of paid downloads in Google Play is twice the size of paid downloads on Amazon, but the revenue gap was smaller. According to its analysis, the top 200 paid applications in Google Play in the U.S. made $5.2 million in March 2013, making Google Play 1.7 times bigger than the Amazon Appstore by revenue.

However, that report noted that there were some examples of applications that did better on Amazon, which essentially backs up the broad strokes of what App Annie is saying here. Simply put, for some developers, Amazon is proving more successful than Google Play, and its potential is growing as Amazon’s store scales.

Also in the new report, 56 percent of the developers App Annie surveyed were said to focus on gaming, and over half (51 percent) said they decided to publish on Amazon because of how easy it was to port apps. Other top reasons included a belief that Amazon’s Appstore marketshare would grow, and that the Kindle Fire would become a leading device.

That second reason – marketshare growth – is already happening, of course. Amazon announced on the 17th that it was expanding its Appstore to cover nearly 200 countries, including notable additions like Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, South Africa and South Korea. Before, the store was only available in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan.

But Amazon’s potential isn’t only tied to its growing reach, but also to its deep experience with e-commerce and related infrastructure. Amazon customers have their account information on file, and can use 1-click purchasing to buy apps. The store lets users test drive apps, and promotes free apps daily, which drives traffic. Amazon also curates apps, so unlike Google Play, those that fill its charts have been scanned for malware and for other bad behavior.

For developers looking to have their app found, and more importantly, purchased, these strengths can add up to drive sales.

Correction: an earlier version of this cited Amazon’s Appstore as a leading revenue driver. This should have said the games category on Amazon was. This has been updated.  

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Apple and Amazon are fighting over made up words, as you may well be aware. Apple takes issue with Amazon’s use of “Appstore,” the name for the online retailer’s marketplace of Android software, which came after Apple had already been using its own App Store branding for a mobile apps market for a couple of years. A judge now says that before the issue actually goes to trial in August, the two will have to try to hammer things out via settlement, according to AllThingsD.

Already, there has been some movement in the case this year. A judge ruled previously that Apple’s claims of false advertising related to the Appstore name were unmerited. Where Apple had believed that by using the name, Amazon was implying that its product was sponsored by or affiliated with Apple. Amazon, on the other hand, claimed the matter at hand is simply standard an allegation of trademark infringement, and the judge in the case agreed, finding that there was “no evidence that a consumer who accesses the Amazon Appstore would expect that it would be identical to the Apple APP STORE,” due mostly to the fact that Apple sells software for iOS while Amazon sells it exclusively for Android-based devices.

In the new court order issued Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte says the two will have to attend a settlement discussion on March 21, with executives present who are in a position to be able to negotiate a binding agreement. But although they must try, there’s no guarantee they’ll actually reach a resolution, and in fact, I suspect the more likely outcome is that we will indeed see the trial go forward on August 19 as planned.

This is a fight that has been going on for two years now, and it has involved more than just Apple and Amazon. The interesting thing to watch will be how damages are assigned if any clear victor emerges from these proceedings; two years’ worth of mobile software sales means Apple could be in for a large settlement, should Amazon indeed be found to have been in the wrong.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

The court has rejected Apple’s earlier claim that Amazon’s use of “Appstore” to describe its Android application marketplace was false “false advertising,” according to a Bloomberg news alert. Apple had filed a trademark lawsuit in 2011, stating that Amazon’s use of the term “appstore” could cause confusion among consumers. In September, 2012, Amazon asked a federal judge to dismiss Apple’s Fifth Cause of Action in the case – the aforementioned “false advertising” claim.

Apple was alleging that the use of the word “Appstore” in Amazon’s advertising is false advertising, but as Amazon explained in its filing, that word is part of the name of Amazon’s store. “It is not a statement about the nature, characteristics, or qualities of Amazon’s store, much less a false one,” the document stated. U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, apparently agreed on this matter.

The false advertising claim was one of many tactics Apple was using against Amazon, but likely one of the least effective ones. By rejecting the claim, Amazon was essentially asking the court to focus on the trademark dispute, which is meant to determine if other companies have the right to use the generic term “app store.” In addition to trademark infringement and false advertising, Apple has also made other claims related to dilution and unfair competition.

This rejection only represents a partial summary judgement in the trademark case; the decision regarding trademark infringement has not yet been decided. On this front, Amazon has cited other incidences where former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and current CEO Tim Cook referred to competitors’ stores, calling them “app stores,” during press events and investor calls.

In this ruling, the document explains Amazon’s and Apple’s positions on the false advertising claim as follows:

Amazon argues that summary judgment should be granted as to this claim because Apple has not identified a single false statement that Amazon has made about the nature, characteristics, or quality of the Amazon Appstore for Android (or the Amazon Appstore, which allows viewing and downloading of apps for the Kindle Fire).

Apple essentially alleges that by using the word “Appstore” in the name of Amazon’s store, Amazon implies that its store is affiliated with or sponsored by Apple. Amazon argues that this allegation is nothing more than a garden-variety trademark infringement claim (false designation of origin).

According to the ruling, the court found “no evidence that a consumer who accesses the Amazon Appstore would expect that it would be identical to the Apple APP STORE, particularly given that the Apple APP STORE sells apps solely for Apple devices, while the Amazon Appstore sells apps solely for Android and 8 Kindle devices.”

Apple vs. Amazon Trademark Case: Case4:11-cv-01327-PJH Document102

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Back in June Amazon officially opened its appstore to international apps, adding support for software intended for the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Today it’s expanded the international reach of the platform by adding Japan to the list of supported countries — describing this as “another significant addition”. A Japanese appstore launch is planned “later this year”.

Developers building apps for Amazon’s mobile products, such as its Kindle Fire and Fire HD tablets, can now submit apps to the ecommerce giant’s Mobile App Distribution Portal for distribution in Japan. The portal enables developers the ability to select the countries where they would like their apps to be sold, set list prices per market and access various resources provided by Amazon. Amazon said it is waiving all first year fees for new developers.

Here’s more on the services it offers via the Portal from Amazon’s Mobile App Distribution Portal blog

By customizing your apps for different countries you can ensure customers have an easier time discovering and using your apps, In-App Purchase items, and subscriptions.  You can learn more about Android localization tips and resources and steps for localizing your app in the Distribution Portal right here on the blog, or learn more about international app distribution on the Mobile App Distribution Portal.

“Opening our portal to app and game developers looking to reach Japanese customers is an important milestone as we strive to serve consumers and developers globally,” says Jim Adkins, Vice President of the Amazon Appstore, in a statement. “Many of our existing developers are anxious to localize their apps and games for Japanese consumers, and we look forward to working with new developers that have been waiting for a chance to bring their Japanese content to the Amazon platform.”

“By continuing to expand our app program internationally, as well as build upon the app services offered by Amazon, we are giving developers the opportunity to attract more customers and expand their businesses,” he added.

Amazon’s release includes supporting comments from software companies and developers including Yahoo Japan, TinyCo, Square Enix, Halfbrick, G5 Entertainment, The Weather Channel Companies and ZeptoLab.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Flashback! Remember this one? Last year, Apple filed a trademark lawsuit against Amazon, claiming that Amazon’s use of the term “App Store” (as in “Amazon Appstore”) could contribute to confusion among consumers as it was not, as Amazon believes, “a generic term.” Other app store providers like Microsoft and Google have made a point to brand their app stores differently by calling them the Windows Marketplace and the Android Market (now Google Play), respectively, just to be on the safe side. But Amazon has stuck to its guns, saying that the phrase should not be subject to trademark protection.

The case is still underway, and in a filing on Wednesday with the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, Amazon has asked a federal judge to reject Apple’s “false advertising” claim.

The filing is in response to Apple’s Fifth Cause of Action in the case. In it, Amazon states that Apple “has not identified a single false statement that Amazon has made about the Amazon Appstore for Android.”

Apple is alleging that the use of the word “Appstore” in Amazon’s advertising is false advertising, Amazon explains in the filing, but that word is part of the name of Amazon’s store. “It is not a statement about the nature, characteristics, or qualities of Amazon’s store, much less a false one,” the document said.

In short, Amazon is saying that the case needs to focus not on “false advertising claims” but on the trademark dispute itself – that is, whether or not Apple has a right to restrict other companies from using the generic term “App Store” (or apparently, any combination of those words – even when mashed up like “Appstore”).

To back up its case on the matter, Amazon has cited incidences where former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and current CEO Tim Cook referred to competitors’ stores as app stores, both during press events and on investor calls. The hearing on Amazon’s motion is scheduled for October 31st, and the trial is scheduled for August 19th, 2013.

Yep, you’ll be hearing about this one for a long time to come.

Source: Reuters 

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Today, comScore released a study on U.S. smartphone behavior with respect to retail and shopping. The study found that 4 in every 5 smartphone users, which represents 85.9 million U.S. users, accessed retail content on their device in July. Amazon was the top retailer with an audience of 49.6 million visitors, followed by eBay with (32.6 million visitors) Apple (17.7 million visitors), Wal-Mart (16.3 million visitors), Target (10 million visitors) and Best Buy (7.2 million visitors).

Beyond traditional retailers, Ticketmaster attracted 5.7 million visitors as summer concerts and performances saw fans turn to their smartphones for tickets and information. Home Depot (4.4 million visitors) and competitor Lowes (3.2 million visitors) also saw traffic. Location-based shopping rewards app Shopkick saw its mobile audience reach more than 4 million visitors in July, according to comScore.

Among both iPhone and Android users, Amazon ranked as the top retailer with a reach of 43 percent among iPhone users and 55 percent among Android users, with visitation to the Amazon Appstore largely accounting for the higher reach among Android users. In contrast, Apple saw 33.5 percent reach among iPhone owners compared to 7.3 percent among Android users. Among the majority of the selected retailers, comScore reports that the iPhone had a higher penetration compared to Android, while in most cases Android devices delivered a larger audience due to the platform’s higher overall market penetration.

comScore also broke down the demographics of mobile shoppers. Across both smartphones and desktop computers, males and females represented nearly equal proportions of retail category visitors. However, females accounted for a higher share of time spent on retail destinations at 53.4 percent of minutes on desktop computers and an even greater share of retail minutes on smartphones at 56.1 percent.

Smartphone shoppers were also more likely to be younger than their desktop counterparts with 70.7 percent of smartphone retail visitors under the age of 45 compared to 61.1 percent of desktop users. Engagement among these audiences showed even greater disparity with visitors under the age of 45 accounting for nearly 3 in every 4 minutes spent on retail content via smartphones, compared to 61.6 percent of retail minutes on desktop computers.

Among smartphone audiences accessing retail destinations, nearly 1 in every 3 had a household income of $100,000 or greater, with this income segment driving a comparable 31.2 percent of minutes spent on retail sites and apps.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Amazon introduced one last Kindle Fire today, the HD version with LTE capability and 32GB of storage for $499. That’s a much better deal than the competition is offering, at least in terms of straight hardware comparisons. People can pre-order that device today, and it ships Nov. 20th.

It also comes with a $49.99/year data plan that provides 250 MB of traffic, 20 GB of cloud storage and a $10 Amazon Appstore credit. It’s a really good value, and CEO Jeff Bezos noted that it runs $410 less than a comparable iPad with data.

This is a significant addition to the line up, and maybe the biggest announcement today, in terms of what effect it might have on the tablet market. So far, critics have said that Amazon’s efforts with tablets are no threat to Apple’s dominance, since they aren’t really competing in the same price ranges. Now that’s changed.

To recap, the other specs of the Fire HD include a 1920

Good news for those of you who live outside the U.S. and have been waiting for Amazon to take more of its mobile products outside its home market. Amazon today officially opened its Appstore to international apps — its first move outside the U.S. for  the applications storefront, which launched in the U.S. last year. Developers from the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain are now being invited to submit apps to the store, with others coming to the party in the “near future,” according to a statement from the company — although one URL I’ve just tried, www.amazon.co.uk/appstore, still is not working, so still a ways to go before consumers can access the store. The move is another piece in the puzzle that will enable Amazon to begin selling its Kindle Fire tablet in markets outside the U.S.

At the same time, the company made another move to sweeten the deal with developers: it has announced some changes to its distribution terms, giving better control to developers for when their apps can be distributed on the Appstore after submission. It is also from today simplifying the revenue share for apps with a straight 70/30 split for revenues from apps, regardless of whether they are paid apps or free selling content via in-app purchases (paid apps used to have two levels of commission: either 70 percent of the app’s sales price or 20 percent of list price, whichever was greater).

Amazon did not provide a specific update on the number of apps in the storefront but noted that Appstore now has “tens of thousands” of apps. The company has more recently been developing a bigger range of options for developers incorporate paid elements into the apps, with in-app purchasing and a try-before-you-buy feature, which Amazon calls Test Drive. Amazon says that since introducing those in-app purchasing into apps earlier this year, some developers have seen their revenues double.

“Some developers have seen revenue double since the launch of In-App Purchasing,” said Jim Adkins, Vice President of the Amazon Appstore, in a statement. “We’re excited to open the door to even more opportunity by expanding app sales outside the U.S. 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.”

Developers interested can go to the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Portal to register.

Charging and distribution. The other changes, which apply to all developers on the Appstore (U.S. or otherwise) are aimed at making app purchases a little more simplified, and brings Amazon in line with how Apple and Google charge for apps. In the wake of introducing in-app purchasing in April, Amazon is now letting developers earn 70 percent of the list price on each paid app sale. “This is a change from the prior terms under which developers earned either 70 percent of the app’s sales price or 20 percent of list price (whichever was greater),” Amazon writes.

Developers can review the full agreement by visiting the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Portal now.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch