Amazon recently launched its own App store for Android phone, which is a place to buy apps, were not sure why as Android already has it's own app store, but it has come under fire today from the International Game Developers Association for its pricing policy.
Amazon thinks that there new store is a game changer, “The sheer number of apps available today makes it hard for customers to find high-quality, relevant products – and developers similarly struggle to get their apps noticed,” it said in a blog post.
The Amazon store will provide developers with access to tens of millions of customers, who can make purchases easily using their existing accounts, it added.
Were very surprised that Android even allowed them have an app that acts a second store to their own app store, but they must be paying them a significant bounty or it would be suicide for Google. Or Google has realised that if that can get more Apps on its Android OS – it will help them narrow the gap between Android and Apple.
Chief among from the IGDA concerns is Amazon's pricing model. The IGDA warns that Amazon not only reserves the right to control the price of the Android games it sells, but also to pay developers "the greater of 70% of the purchase price or 20% of the List Price."
Amazon's T&Cs also state that if a developer lowers the price of its game on an 'similar service' - such as another appstore - it must permanently reduce its price on the Amazon store. This effectively means that a 'time-limited' offer on a competitor's store becomes a permanent price reduction on the Amazon store.
The full advisory, including examples of scenarios in which developers may lose significant revenue, can be found on the IGDA website.
Elesewhere, Apple recently began legal action against Amazon for use of the term 'App Store' the details and implications of which are discussed on the Gamer Law blog.