Another day and more information comes out regarding the Amazon App Store for Android. This time, however, there may be some things you don’t know just yet about it or why certain companies, such as Gameloft, have decided to use it instead of the Android Market. So read on, it is pretty interesting.
As you may know already, the Amazon App Store has a new feature that lets you try games/apps before you buy them. Currently though not all games and applications are available for trying before you buy them and the time limit is 30mins of playing before your trial is over. This will be a much better feature once every application and game that can take advantage of this is supported.
Also after some testing, the original answer Gameloft gave us regarding whether or not you are going to be able to re-install a game you’ve purchased on the Amazon App Store on other devices when you get a new one or upgrade is incorrect. Currently, you can install a game you’ve purchased on any Android device you own that is tied to your account. Whether this is a bug right now and will be changed or perhaps the person from Gameloft who answered us actually wasn’t aware of this remains unknown. However, this should make a lot of our readers happy.
Speaking of Gameloft, through an email conversation with the crew over there, we got the low down as to why they have decided to use the Amazon App Store instead of the Android Market. We were fully expecting some long reply that would deal with DRM issues and things of that nature since it was stated as being a major part of why they won’t use the Android Market. So why the Amazon App Store, the answer may surprise you.
Aside from the fact the Amazon App Store curates all the applications and games that are made available through the App Store, the major reason why they have decided to go through Amazon is because… AT&T users can’t install 3rd party applications and games from outside the Android Market. However, AT&T has made an exception to this regarding Amazon, probably because it is Amazon.
That’s it! Nothing really about DRM issues or people ripping off other peoples games. It is simple due to the fact that, until the Amazon App Store came along, AT&T users haven’t been able to purchase their games from their own store (unless they are rooted as far as I know). This means they have been missing a huge amount of potential customers. Of course putting their games on the Android Market would have resolved this but for whatever reason (citing DRM issues), they won’t.
So there you have it, some early Monday morning information to think about regarding the Amazon App Store and Gameloft. Let us know what you think about all of this in the comments below.
Developer Websites: Gameloft | Amazon App Store
