Amazon Android App Store now open, Angry Birds Rio available for FREE

March 22, 2011 | by Andrew Kameka

The Android Market has a new competitor now that the Amazon App Store for Android is officially open for business. After some early morning will-they-won’t-they hi-jinx, the app store is now open for downloading Android apps, including the exclusive release of Angry Birds Rio.

The Amazon App Store is offering Angry Birds Rio as a free download to anyone who installs the app store onto their Android phone; however, the offer has a countdown that expires at the end of the day (March 22, 2011). By logging-in to an Amazon account and downloading the app store to a phone, Amazon offers the latest Angry Birds Rio and 3,000 other Android apps.

The App Store has a website that continues the design of the standard Amazon shopping experience. Apps are broken down according to section, and a 1-click download link pushes a link to the Amazon store app installed on your Android phone. It’s essentially a web-to-phone bookmarking service similar to what AppBrain used when Google broke its install links to the Android Market last year.

Users can also browse Amazon from their Android phones with an on-device app store. A search button is at the top, and users can scroll through app categories or browse a section of apps specifically recommended for you. This is one of the Amazon App Store’s best draws because it has a strong history of figuring out what people buy. I’ve been a long time customer of their consumer products and their recommendation engine is one of the best I’ve seen online. If the company manages to transition that knowledge into a curated Android market, the App Store could be a better option for discovering apps.

The distribution method for these phones means that AT&T customers will be unable to use the Amazon App Store unless they have a custom ROM. (AT&T currently does not permit non-Android Market apps on phones.) While this may be a deterrent for customers on one of the biggest networks in the U.S., it could potentially be a big boon to international users as Michael pointed out in his “Can Amazon succeed?” column.

I installed the Amazon App Store to test it out and get a free copy of Angry Birds Rio, but I doubt I will continue to use it unless the store lands exclusives for must-have apps. I don’t want to have pay multiple stores unless absolutely necessary, and I’d still like to get more clarity on Amazon’s practices and store policies. From a quality standpoint, the App Store is solid. Whether that foundation is solid enough to attract Android customers remains to be seen.

Thanks, GabeZermeno

amazon, Amazon app store, android apps, Angry Birds, market alternatives

9 Comments

Paul says:

March 22, 2011 at 9:59 am

By the looks of things it's U.S. only. There's a lot of Android lovers who are upset at being left out in the cold. Nice one Amazon!
U.K. says:

March 22, 2011 at 10:10 am

only available in the U.S. WTF is this fucking shit, why do companies still insist in carving the world up in this way, especially for non tangibles distributed via the fucking net. Complete piss taking joke
Benjamin says:

March 22, 2011 at 11:12 am

Love it… plus they promise to make one paid app a day free through the Amazon appstore. This will definitely drive traffic.
CaptBananapants says:

March 22, 2011 at 11:19 am

Explain this to me though – why is regular ol' Angry Birds a paid app? is it ad-free or something?
- Benjamin says:
  
  March 22, 2011 at 12:21 pm
  
  Yes, you now have the option of having ad-free versions.
Danatheteacher says:

March 22, 2011 at 10:48 pm

I'm a little miffed about having the apps tied to my Amazon Account and having to have the Amazon App Store installed at all times and me logged in……This is enough to keep me at the Android Marketplace for buying apps. My recent post 10 Top Android Market Alternative App Stores
jgamio says:

March 23, 2011 at 5:16 pm

"The distribution method for these phones means that AT&T customers will be unable to use the Amazon App Store unless they have a custom ROM" You don't need a custom ROM or root the phone. I just installed using these link http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=…
Erlik says:

March 24, 2011 at 8:14 am

US only, this sucks!! Now I can't get angry birds rio because of Amazon!
paul smith says:

February 26, 2012 at 11:32 am

I tried a fun prank app called farter on the Amazon app store and we could not stop laughing. Farter even works on the kindle fire. Farter is prank app and not like other fart apps. I pointed the prank farter app at my friends one by one and once it detected the fart culprit, it screamed out “ Farter – Farter “. It works by gently tilting the phone but no one can tell how I was doing it. It is the best prank app I have had! http://www.amazon.com/Farter–The-Fun-Fart-Finder/dp/B007C82664/ref=sr_1_1?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1330257307&sr=1-1

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