Ask HN: Is it worth to develop Android apps for Amazon's Kindle?
We've developed some Android apps that have achieved some popularity (4M~ downloads in total). We've been contacted by Amazon reps trying to entice us to support Kindle's API. We're not sure if it's worth the hassle, though (would require lots of code patches and separate compilations), so we wanted to ask the community: have you done this? do you have any comparison between Play Store and Amazon's?
thanks!
3 comments
The Amazon T&Cs might put you off - have a good read before you even think about it.
I suspect (but have zero evidence)that Kindle buyers are not likely to be app purchasers and while Android users generally can use the Amazon store I am not at all sure this is their first choice when looking for an app.
It might be that the latest Kindle models will enter the mainstream as Android tablets - have to see if that happens - the hardware specs are good. [anyone know if they now ship with an up-to-date Android version?]
You would think that the amazon store would be very good at offering apps alongside books if they might have a similar appeal (say a navigation app alongside books on similar subjects) but I have seen little evidence of such cross marketing - if that started to work then it would be a strong indicator that the Amazon app store was capable of making an impact.
I suspect (but have zero evidence)that Kindle buyers are not likely to be app purchasers and while Android users generally can use the Amazon store I am not at all sure this is their first choice when looking for an app.
It might be that the latest Kindle models will enter the mainstream as Android tablets - have to see if that happens - the hardware specs are good. [anyone know if they now ship with an up-to-date Android version?]
You would think that the amazon store would be very good at offering apps alongside books if they might have a similar appeal (say a navigation app alongside books on similar subjects) but I have seen little evidence of such cross marketing - if that started to work then it would be a strong indicator that the Amazon app store was capable of making an impact.
Thanks! Indeed we suspect it's likely like you say---Kindle people aren't app purchasers, but we'd love to see some real evidence. We also offer ad-based free apps, btw, and our category isn't reading & books, it's photography apps.
And there are masses of "how to" photography books - it would be great if Amazon promoted you apps to everyone who purchased a book on that topic - but do they?
You are talking about kindle fire not the e-ink kindle, right? Kindle fire users do buy apps. Some articles you might can take a look:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/25/reports-detail-amazon-appst... http://blog.apptopia.com/amazon_appstore/
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/25/reports-detail-amazon-appst... http://blog.apptopia.com/amazon_appstore/
actually, I'd welcome opinions where s/Amazon/XXX for XXX!=Google Play Store :)