Introducing the Amazon.com Appstore for Android

Amazon.com introduced its new Appstore on Tuesday. (Note that I did not spell it with two words, which might recall another famous app store, but more about that in a second). For those of us with an iPhone, this might very well be a sea change. Amazon.com is such a strong brand; other Android stores are less widely known. I would even categorize Google’s own Android store as lesser known, as it’s not even featured on the Google homepage). Potential customers are likely already familiar with the Amazon.com site, having been customers for years. Thus, it adds a comfort level for those of us current iPhone users who might consider shifting over to Android.

Having Amazon.com on board is also a brilliant sales move, perhaps one that even iTunes can’t match — if Amazon.com can feature individual apps prominently right there on the homepage, the stability and growth prospects for the Android phone could very well be assured (visibility is a must for cell phones). Finally, competition is a good thing: Apple doesn’t allow it for the iPhone, whereas there are many options out there for Android users to download apps, including direct from the apps’ websites. You don’t often see a promotion like Amazon is running right now to celebrate the store’s launch: the new Angry Birds Rio game is available for free for a limited time — and is exclusive to Amazon. Everything is exclusive for iTunes, of course.