Amazon (AMZN) on Thursday announced the launch of localized Android Appstores in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy and Spain. “Amazon has spent years developing innovative features that help customers find and discover the products that are right for them and have applied that know-how to the Amazon Appstore. We’re delighted to extend that experience to our European customers,” said the company’s VP of the Appstore, Jim Adkins. The overseas launch is a strong indication that the company’s next-generation Kindle Fire tablets may also launch in Europe. Amazon is scheduled to hold a press conference in Santa Monica, California on September 6th and is expected to unveil a slew of new Kindle devices. The company’s press release follows below.
Amazon Appstore Launches in Europe; Now available in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain
Amazon Appstore rollout across the EU is the latest in a series of additions that make Amazon the most complete end-to-end platform for developers looking to build, market and monetise their apps and games
SEATTLE and LUXEMBOURG – 30 August 2012 – (NASDAQ: AMZN) – Amazon.com, Inc. today announced the launch of its Amazon Appstore in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, giving European customers access to Amazon’s broad selection of quality Android apps with the convenience of shopping on Amazon from their Android phones and tablets. Customers can get the Amazon Appstore for their Android phones and tablets by visiting http://www.amazon.co.uk/get-appstore.
Amazon’s Appstore offers a great selection of games and apps, including local favourites like ‘Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals’ and ‘Skyscanner’, established bestsellers like ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ and ‘Cut the Rope’, and new apps from top-tier brands like Rovio and Sanrio Digital. In addition to localised content and a localised mobile store for each specific country, European customers will have access to popular Amazon Appstore features like the ‘Free App of the Day’, which offers a paid app for free every day. Today’s Free App of the Day is the ad-free version of ‘Angry Birds’; and the PopCap favorite ‘Plants vs. Zombies’ will be offered for free tomorrow. All Free Apps of the Day are specially selected for the Free App of the Day programme. Apps and games purchased from Amazon can be used across a customer’s Android devices, enabling them to buy an app or game once and enjoy it everywhere.
The Amazon Appstore also includes popular Amazon features like personalised recommendations, Customer Reviews and 1-Click payments. In order to ensure that customers have the best possible experience with the apps they purchase, apps are Amazon-tested and backed by Amazon’s world-class customer support.
“Customers in the US have purchased millions of apps, games, in-app items and subscriptions since the store launched last year, and we’ve received great feedback about discovery features like Free App of the Day. We evaluate and test games and apps before making them available in the Appstore so we ensure customers have a great experience with the games and apps they purchase,” said Jim Adkins, Vice President of Amazon Appstore. “Amazon has spent years developing innovative features that help customers find and discover the products that are right for them and have applied that know-how to the Amazon Appstore. We’re delighted to extend that experience to our European customers.”
Amazon continues to roll out services and features that make it the most complete end-to-end solution for developers wanting to build, market and monetise their apps and games. Developers can build their apps and games using Amazon Web Service’s industry-leading infrastructure platform. For important audience engagement features like Leaderboards, Achievements and Syncing game state between devices, developers can use Amazon’s new GameCircle services. To gain exposure to tens of millions of customers, developers can list their apps in the Amazon Appstore and take advantage of awareness-building programmes like Free App of the Day. And, to monetise their apps and games, developers can use Amazon’s industry-leading e-commerce and payment capabilities like In-App Purchasing and Subscriptions.
“Amazon’s Free App of the Day programme is really unique,” said Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio Mighty Eagle and CMO. “Over the past year we have offered Amazon customers some of our best-selling premium games like ‘Angry Birds Rio’ and ‘Angry Birds Seasons’, for free, and the response has been truly overwhelming. We are pleased to offer Amazon customers another one of our most popular premium titles, ‘Angry Birds’, for free today.”
“Amazon customers are very important to us, and ‘Cut the Rope’ and ‘Cut the Rope: Experiments’ have been in the top of the charts on Amazon Appstore in the US. We are focused on delivering great gaming experiences to our users all over the world, and are looking forward to reaching more ‘Cut the Rope’ fans as Amazon launches its store in Europe,” said Misha Lyalin, CEO ZeptoLab.
“At Glu we’ve always been an early adopter of Amazon services for both building and selling our mobile games. For example, “Frontline Commando” was one of the first games on the Amazon Appstore to offer IAP and subscriptions. This game also leverages Amazon’s S3 and Sync services,” said Niccolo de Masi, Chief Executive Officer of Glu Mobile. “Amazon offers us exposure to its large customer base and we will continue to use the Amazon platform in our efforts to grow our business.”
“We are big fans of Amazon Appstore and have seen tremendous growth in our business since we started releasing our apps on the Amazon platform,” said Suli Ali, CEO of TinyCo. “We have been extremely successful with Amazon’s In-App Purchasing. It was easy to implement, and we have generated significantly more revenue per customer than with any other platform. Since we have had such success with Amazon, when GameCircle was introduced, it was a no-brainer, we added it to our apps right away.”
“Zolmo is excited that ‘Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals’ will be a part of Amazon’s International expansion into the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain,” said Tristan Celder, Zolmo CEO. “We look forward to being a part of Amazon’s Free App of the Day programme as we bring Jamie Oliver’s quick and delicious recipes to a new set of customers across the globe.”
“The arrival of Amazon’s store in the UK makes it even easier for Skyscanner users to search for flights anywhere they want, ” said Gareth Williams, Skyscanner’s CEO, “Travellers are by definition a mobile group of people so they need to be able to search on the move, we’re very much looking forward to making our All Flights, Everywhere! app available to millions of Amazon customers in the UK.”
