亚马逊应用商店Appstore自从3月22日登台以来，其应用程序数量已达4000种，如果该应用商店可以克服自身的一些短板，很有潜力成为一个主流的Android应用销售渠道。

Amazon-Android-App-Store

Android Market现在的应用数量已经超过25万，苹果App Store更是以35万以上的应用数量傲视群雄，而亚马逊Appstore的应用数量却还不到5000种，那么这个新晋竞争者的切入点究竟在哪？首先，亚马逊拥有极佳的个性化推荐引擎，可以更好地推广应用，增加其曝光率。Android Market目前的应用检索体验还是很不理想，所以亚马逊可以由此实现其应用商店的差异化发展，帮助用户匹配其所需要应用产品。其次，手机网购行为日益盛行，亚马逊恰好正发展为一个强大的数字产品零售渠道，它的用户信用卡用户帐户与iTunes最为接近——已逼近2亿个帐户。

销售应用与贩卖其他产品并无区别，所以亚马逊恰好可充分利用自己的零售优势，在这一领域施展拳脚。有些已在iOS和Android平台立足的发行商，也正准备通过亚马逊Appstore推广自己的应用。最近的iTunes App Store免费应用亚军《Shave Me!》开发商Metaversal Studios就是这种典型。该工作室产品开发副总裁Matt Sughrue表示，在《Shave Me!》成为iTunes免费应用榜单的第二名后，他们就在四月初将该产品投放到了亚马逊Appstore。

亚马逊Appstore的另一个独特的吸引力在于它的“每日免费应用推荐”功能，至今为止已通过该服务推荐了不少应用产品，但大多数时候都是在推荐《愤怒的小鸟：里约》。不过亚马逊当然还存在一些问题，例如将应用程序下载到Android移动设备、开发者访问应用销售页面等方面的服务仍然不够便捷。假如亚马逊能够解决这些问题，那就很有希望成为这一领域的强势竞争者。有人认为，亚马逊应该跳出应用领域的圈子，向硬件市场发力。目前亚马逊的策略是让Appstore预装到移动设备，但从技术上讲，它其实也已经可以推出自己的移动设备，然后结合Appstore的预装策略，在移动硬件与软件市场建立自己的势力范围（游戏邦注：据称亚马逊目前已推出自己的智能手机设备Blaze）。亚马逊的Kindle与Amazon.com电子书库的匹配就可以说明这种可能性。当然，亚马逊还可以面向Android平板电脑开放一个支付服务平台。

Forester的一名分析师Epps表示，“我认为这种情况很有可能发生，iTunes已经有2亿信用卡帐号记录在案，亚马逊是唯一可与其匹敌的公司。用户认为亚马逊的交易服务比谷歌更为方便适用，所以将亚马逊的支付服务植入Android Market有助于促进用户购买更多的Android应用。”

另一名分析师Charles Golvin补充称，“除了支付服务外，亚马逊比苹果App Store做得更好的就是零售服务，例如销售应用、增加应用曝光率、产品推广等方面。我认为亚马逊已将应用程序视为他们可在平板电脑、手机平台上可占优势的另一种产品类型。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Does Amazon’s Appstore Have What It Takes To Succeed?

Amazon’s Appstore for Android launched in March 22 and currently has 4,000 apps. Amazon is in a strong position to be a major channel of digital distribution if it can overcome some hurdles. More after the jump.

We recently covered the buzzworthy launch of the Amazon App Store last month. The Android Marketplace trumps the Amazon Appstore with its 130K apps compared to Amazon’s 4K app. Apple App Store, on the other hand, is clearly the leader with 350,000 apps. So where does Amazon fit in? The first major reason that Amazon is selling apps is that Amazon has a robust personalized recommendation engine that it can leverage to promote apps and deals to its users. The current experience of searching for apps on Android Marketplace is less than stellar so Amazon can differentiate its app store by helping customers find and discover relevant products. Secondly, mobile shopping is booming and Amazon is keen on becoming a strong retail channel for digital goods. Amazon is the only company that comes close to having the number of credit cards on file as iTunes does – close to 200M.

Selling apps is no different than selling something else, so Amazon is simply capitalizing on their strengths as a retailer. As many publishers broaden their horizons from iOS to Android, some are looking to Amazon Appstore to promote their app. One example is Metaversal Studios’ Shave Me! which is currently ranked as the #2 free app in the iTunes App Store.

“We are excited to bring Shave Me! to the Amazon Appstore on the heels of our rapid rise up the iTunes Free App charts in these first few days of April,” said Matt Sughrue, VP of Product Development at Metaversal Studios.

One appealing aspect of Amazon’s AppStore is its ‘Free App a Day’ feature. To date it has pushed many apps through its program but there could be a lack of premium content to push as Amazon has turned multiple times to Angry Birds Rio to feature it. Angry Birds Rio garnered a total of 10 million download across iOS and Android, especially using Amazon’s AppStore to push its app. Amazon of course has its own issues, from the ease of downloading the app store on to Android devices to developers having trouble accessing their app sales page and so forth. If Amazon can over come some of these issues they can be a strong player in the space. Some argue Android should go beyond its software endeavors and delve into hardware. Currently Amazon’s strategy is to have the Amazon AppStore come preloaded on devices but it could technically launch its own device as it would fit in its strategy of making great products and services available on mobile devices. Amazon is already doing this by pairing Kindle with Amazon.com’s digital book library. Amazon could also be setting itself up to be a payment platform for Android tablets.

“I think this is the more likely scenario, actually,” Epps, an analyst at Forester, told eWEEK. “iTunes has 200M credit cards on file; Amazon is one of the only other companies that comes close to that. Consumers feel more comfortable transacting via Amazon than Google, so layering Amazon payments on top of the Android Market could encourage consumers to buy more Android apps.”

Epps’ colleague, Forrester analyst Charles Golvin, added:

“In addition to payment support, there’s something that Amazon does infinitely better than anyone other than Apple who is operating an ‘app store’ (quotes to prevent legal action from Cupertino): retail. You know, market apps, ease their discovery, run promotions, etc. I suspect Amazon simply sees software as yet another product category they can dominate, on tablets AND on phones.”

Update: Amazon is reportedly launching their own device called Blaze. （source:socialtimes）