Amazon has just announced that it has officially opened up its developer portal so Android developers can begin submitting their applications and games to their AppStore for international distribution. Using the official Amazon Mobile App Distribution Portal, developers can get their apps and games in early for when the AppStore expands to countries outside of the US.
Later this Summer the Amazon AppStore will become available to residents of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Amazon, according to their announcement blog post, also has plans to further expand their reach with their AppStore in the near future as well, granting access to even more countries although no hints have been given as to what those countries will be.
Developers are not required to support multiple languages in order to be internationally distributed through their AppStore although they obviously recommend localizing your apps and games in order to be more successful. For those of you out there already distributing your applications and games through Amazon’s AppStore, you will automatically be added for international distribution without having to do anything at all.
There are also two key changes to the Amazon Mobile App Distribution agreement being announced as well. Here are the exact details of the changes:
Amazon will be aligning the revenue share for paid apps with that for in-app products sold using Amazon’s In-App Purchasing Service. Starting July 1, you will earn 70% of list price on each paid app sale. This is a change from the prior terms under which you earned either 70% of the app’s sales price or 20% of list price (whichever was greater). To put it differently, starting in July, you’ll receive 70% of the list price for all sales, regardless of whether you monetize your apps up front (paid apps) or downstream (using our In-App Purchasing Service).
Second, we will be adapting the terms of the distribution agreement to provide more flexibility around timing for app submissions. You will now control which apps you will make available to Amazon customers, and when, as well as the countries in which your apps may be sold. As a reminder, it’s your responsibility to ensure your list prices do not exceed the lowest prices at which your apps and in-app products are sold in similar stores. To review the full agreement, including the two changes described above, please follow this link.
No word just yet on when the Amazon AppStore will go international, only that it will be doing so later this Summer. If you don’t have a developer account over at Amazon, now is a good time to get one as they are waiving the annual fee for 2012 as well. Soon a lot our international readers will be able to take advantage of those free app/games of the day, discounts and exclusive releases that you have unfortunately missed out on until now.
On a side note, we will be expanding our cultivated games catalog to include Amazon’s AppStore as well now that they are expanding internationally.
