Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon’s Disruptive Android App Store Now Open To Developers — Full Details

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 62 posts

Re: Amazon’s Disruptive Android App Store Now Open To Developers — Full Details

#41

Post by travisp »

portman wrote: post #38
latch wrote: post #6

Wow..Amazon gets to set the price on your app. Developers only get to recommend. Certainly original. If this takes off it could have a significant impact on application pricing for more than just Android devices. iTunes put it in people's heads that a song is worth $1. Amazon is working hard at saying that a book is worth $10. This is the same model - by setting the price for individual apps, Amazon is going to be se…

"Amazon gets to set the price on your app. Developers only get to recommend. Certainly original." This is how the vast majority of retail products work. The manufacturer suggests a retail price, but it is up to the retailer to determine what the consumer ultimately pays. Software was sold this way for several decades. So it strikes me as more "retro" than "original". Not that it's a bad thing -- I love the idea of Am…

The manufacturer suggests a retail price, but it is up to the retailer to determine what the consumer ultimately pays.

This is quite different because in retail the wholesale cost is negotiated between the manufacturer and retailer. Therefore, the price that the retailer chooses to sell the product at to consumers does not change how much the manufacturer makes (except indirectly, by affecting quantity sold and therefore bought from the manufacturer). Coca Cola gets the same amount of money per can if Walmart sells the cans for 20 cents each or $2 each.

In this case, Amazon essentially gets to choose not only the retail price, but the wholesale price, except that the prices are at a fixed ratio to one another and there is a price floor on the wholesale price based on the suggested retail price you gave.

Re: Amazon’s Disruptive Android App Store Now Open To Developers — Full Details

#42

Post by JoeAltmaier »

jonknee wrote: post #36
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, maybe, but most of us suffer from under-pricing our apps. Amazon's deal only allows them to further discount from your stated 'list price'. I don't see how they can improve things in this common case. I suspect (am utterly sure) they will price things to maximize Amazon's income, not mine. Which may mean deeply discounting my app as part of some campaign to boost their total sales - which won't benefit me one i…

So make your list price higher than your current price and let Amazon figure out what's best. Unless I'm missing something, Amazon's getting a percentage, so their income is maximized when your income is maximized.

That's naieve. They have many products. They may use yours as a 'loss leader', they may experiment with your price, they may decide your product is worse than another one and position it as the low-tier offering and choose a price to enhance the sales of the higher-tier product (not yours).

Re: Amazon’s Disruptive Android App Store Now Open To Developers — Full Details

#43

Post by jcl »

dalore wrote: post #15
iwwr wrote: post #2

Would the various "markets" inter-operate? Does the device sold with operator firmware have access to the Amazon Android Market?

I would assume that Amazon would release an app in the default Google Android appstore which would then let the user access the Amazon Android appstore.

...which is explicitly banned by Google's Android Market Agreement:

4.5 Non-Compete. You may not use the Market to distribute or make available any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the distribution of Products outside of the Market.

http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.h...

More likely, they'd make arrangements with carriers/manufacturers to have the app pre-installed, much as they do with their current Amazon MP3 app.

Re: Amazon’s Disruptive Android App Store Now Open To Developers — Full Details

#44

Post by dpcan »

dazzla wrote: post #35

No one notice that you must get all your apps through Amazon approval before you can make them available for sale elsewhere? b. Timing of Deliveries. ... You will deliver future Apps within 14 days before the initial availability date you designate for the App (the “Initial Availability Date”). The Initial Availability Date must be no later than the first date you permit the App to be listed for pre-order or sale on…

Wow, thanks.

Re: Amazon’s Disruptive Android App Store Now Open To Developers — Full Details

#45

Post by dave1619 »

Amazon is a big player and has potential to disrupt the Android app economy. Already their pricing mechanism is set up where they WILL undercut the Android marketplace. That is why people will choose to buy and download Android apps from Amazon. They have an easy payment system that millions have purchased from. And they will work with carriers and manufacturers to get their Amazon AppStore on as many phones as possible. Overall, I think this is good for developers because more people will purchase apps. But the developers will lose control over pricing and you'll have two markets - Android marketplace at retail price and the Amazon appstore at discount price. Maybe people will download free apps from google's marketplace, and paid apps from Amazon's. Not as seamless as Apple's ecosystem, but people like a deal.

Re: Amazon’s Disruptive Android App Store Now Open To Developers — Full Details

#46

Post by Samuel_Michon »

This might actually work.

One of the main reasons why Apple's App Store took off is that 100 million customers already had an iTunes account with a credit card on file.

Amazon is one of the few other online retailers that has payment details for 100 million customers. Along with tons of retail experience, that gives it a huge advantage over Google.

The only thing that worries me is that Amazon is still very US-centric. It only has localized sites for Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. 8 countries is far too few. Compare that to the 91 countries where Apple has App Stores.

Re: Amazon’s Disruptive Android App Store Now Open To Developers — Full Details

#47

Post by dpcan »

corin_ wrote: post #21

So far I've spoken to a copuple of different devs who, when I asked what they thought of Amazon setting the price, said "well there's a field for me to enter 'list price', so what are you talking about?" Are a lot of people going to miss that detail and assume that the list price they set is what it will be sold for?

Yes. Me. I have refrained from submitting my apps now for 2 reasons:

1) They say I have to get their approval 14 days before submitting new apps to Similar Services

2) 20% of "List Price" that they can set???? I'm still confused on this, and I get A LOT of sales from the Market, so I'm not interested in Amazon deciding what's best for me.

Re: Amazon’s Disruptive Android App Store Now Open To Developers — Full Details

#48

Post by dazzla »

jonknee wrote: post #36
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, maybe, but most of us suffer from under-pricing our apps. Amazon's deal only allows them to further discount from your stated 'list price'. I don't see how they can improve things in this common case. I suspect (am utterly sure) they will price things to maximize Amazon's income, not mine. Which may mean deeply discounting my app as part of some campaign to boost their total sales - which won't benefit me one i…

So make your list price higher than your current price and let Amazon figure out what's best. Unless I'm missing something, Amazon's getting a percentage, so their income is maximized when your income is maximized.

You can't set the list price any higher than anywhere else.

i. List Price. The “List Price” for an App is an amount that does not exceed, at any time, the lowest list price or suggested retail price for such App (including any similar edition, version or release) available or previously available on any Similar Service or the lowest actual price at which you make or made such App available for sale through any Similar Service. You will update the List Price for each App as necessary to ensure that it meets the requirements of this section 5i.

Re: Amazon’s Disruptive Android App Store Now Open To Developers — Full Details

#49

Post by Xuzz »

izendejas wrote: post #11
humbledrone wrote: post #3

Finally! IMHO Google's Android Market is the weakest part of the platform right now. I am fond of my Android phone but it really is a pain to find new apps. AFAICT, the only way to really do it is from the handset, which is not nearly as useful as being able to do it from my desktop machine. Hopefully the existence of Amazon's marketplace will motivate Google to get their act together. If not, maybe I'll just switch…

Android has several issues and I agree that the market app sucks, so I use appbrain. Give a try if you haven't already. It gives decent recommendations and you can filter apps by hotness among other things.

I think the issue, though, is not if you (or other people on HN) use AppBrain: it's if your customers are going to be able to find your app. I doubt that a significant chunk of Android users actually use something like AppBrain, so a pre-installed Amazon Appstore might help those people.

Re: Amazon’s Disruptive Android App Store Now Open To Developers — Full Details

#50

Post by dazzla »

pedanticfreak wrote: post #31

If you are guaranteed 20% of the list price, I forsee devs overpricing their apps in the Amazon store to get a higher minimum payout. Additionally, even if the best default price is much lower, it just makes their apps look that much better when Amazon's app store says "50% off" or "86% off."

Your list price can't be more than anywhere else you sell it.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2071795

Post reply on HN