Amazon made an announcement that it is opening its Appstore to apps made in other countries. This is the company’s first overt move to really go international with the Appstore, which was officially opened in the United States a year ago. According to Amazon, developers from European countries like France, Italy, Germanty, the UK and Spain can now submit apps to the Amazon Appstore for consideration. The company has also teased that it will further open up this opportunity to other countries in the future.
Many pundits think that this move by Amazon to open up the Appstore to other countries is an important step towards Amazon being able to sell its hit Kindle Fire tablet to markets outside the United States.
In order to encourage developers to make apps for the Appstore, Amazon has also changed some things in its distribution terms. First, Amazon now gives developers more control on when their apps can be distributed to the Appstore after the app has been submitted for review. Also, the revenue sharing has been simplified as well. Amazon now imposes a simple 70 – 30 split on the revenues generated by the apps regardless of whether the app is for sale or if is free and sells content through in-app purchases. The previous arrangement was either 70 percent of the sales price of the app or a 20 percent of the list price, whichever is greater.
Amazon said that it already has tens of thousands of apps in the Appstore, but has failed to provide an exact number.
Originally posted on June 20, 2012 @ 8:44 pm