Developers Have a Bone to Pick With Amazon App Store
The Amazon App Store has a reputation for offering what the Google Market doesn't, and developers all hope for their apps to make the coveted Free App of the Day spot.
The Amazon App Store has a reputation for offering what the Google Market doesn't, and developers all hope for their apps to make the coveted Free App of the Day spot. This is, of course, with the knowledge the the Amazon App Store pays developers 20% of the asking
price of the app, even if it is given away for free. Amazon makes this term public. However, before a developer's app is placed in the Free App of the Day spot, they get an email saying,
And you're done for?
"As you may already know, the Free App of the Day offer placement is one of the most visible and valuable spaces on the Amazon Appstore. We would like to include your app “[name removed]” in our Free App of the Day calendar. We have seen tremendous results from this promotion spot and believe it will bring you a great deal of positive reviews and traffic. It is an opportunity to build your brand especially in association with a brand like Amazon’s. The current price of this placement is at 0% rev share for that one day you are placed."
Developers, of course, are not fans of this policy, especially those who don't place advertising in their apps. After protesting to Amazon,
the company wrote back saying that developers get big publicity from their apps being in that spot and when there's $0 in revenue being made, 20% of $0 is $0. One group of developers ran an experiment to see how the Free App a Day Spot affected their app's sale after it was replaced in the spot. They sold more than 10,000 apps the day it was in the Free App a Day spot but the following few days, when customers had to pay for the app, the sales were negligible. As a result, the developers basically gave away 10,000 copies of their app, without earning a single penny.
More from News AnalysisNash, as he prefers being called, woke up to the wonders of gaming rather late but don't bring that up around him. It's a touchy subject. A self confessed Battlefield veteran, Nash spent a good part of 2010 on the Steam Battlefield - with Bad Company (see what we did there?). He has a zero tolerance policy towards RTS games but is currently showing an interest by picking up and moving people - who he refers to as units - in the office. Thank God he's not that enthusiastic about Angry Birds or we'd be seeing women flying all over the place. Bali... Bali, put the receptionist down now.
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