Amazon signals India intent by wooing developers

Last week, e-commerce giant Amazon announced that it would be bringing the Android-based Appstore to India, among other countries. Naturally, the interest in Kindle Fire HDs and other Amazon products based on the Android OS has been piqued.

In a bid to better compete with the likes of iOS and Android, Amazon is now trying to woo Indian app developers by opening up registrations for regional apps and content. The competition for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have intensified greatly over the last few years and Amazon famously forked Android OS to launch their Kindle Fire series of tablets with affordable price tags and running a deeply customised OS. As a result, the company’s share of the tablet market has shot up in the last two years.

Coming soon to India?

Indian developers who want to develop or port apps to Amazon’s Appstore will now be able to do so by by registering and paying an annual fee of $99 (approx Rs 5,400).

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In a statement released by the company, Vice President of Apps and Games, Mike George said that Amazon’s strong presence in the US market and in many major European nations will help give impetus to new developers from India. “This platform is a complete end-to-end solution for developers wanting to build, market, and monetise their apps on Kindle and Android devices. Amazon developers throughout the world are experiencing strong monetisation, and we want to bring that to India,” said George.

Unlike the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, the Amazon storefront does not have Rupee pricing currently. But considering all the other moves Amazon has made in India, the day when users won’t have to convert dollars before purchasing an app isn’t far away.

Amazon recently tied up with distributor Redington, one of the two distributors for Apple’s iPhone in India. Apple has seen great success with the iPhone 4 in recent times and the two-generations old handset is reportedly out of stock in the country. Redington’s experience will surely hold Amazon in good stead. Amazon launched its Kindle e-reader devices in India last year and the launch of the Android-based Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD cannot be ruled out in the short term.

“The Appstore’s success has largely been driven by Amazon’s large customer base and gaming experience found on our Kindle Fire. The store will allow developers to take advantage of our in-app purchasing, A/B testing and GameCircle,” the company said in the statement.