The war for supremacy among online app stores is about to welcome another gladiator – and it isn’t a lightweight.
Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, is taking direct aim at the major players in the app world by launching a new online storefront for Android apps and software.
Identical to Apple’s arrangement with developers that sell applications through the Apple App Store, Amazon will retain 30% of revenue from all app sales, with developers keeping the remaining 70%.
The move is a clear indication of Amazon’s appetite for profit within a digital realm exploding in popularity as the collective public interest in downloadable apps and games is reaching fever pitch.
With some analysts predicting that the online app industry will be worth $40 billion by 2014, Amazon is clearly wise to be forward thinking in its plans to break digital ground on a new app store.
“There is a huge volume of apps out there,” one Amazon executive tells Bloomberg. “The challenge that creates for the Android ecosystem is it can be hard to find the products that are relevant to you. We’ve spent years developing an e-commerce platform that helps customers find relevant products amidst a massive selection.”
For now, Amazon will only say their app store is coming. The company won’t say exactly when.
