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Amazon’s Appstore for Android launches in Europe as Kindle Fire sells out claiming 22 percent of US tablet sales

Amazon has a bit of exciting Android-related news today: The mega online retailer announced the launch of its Appstore for Android in Europe and revealed its Android-powered Kindle Fire is currently sold out after gobbling up nearly one-fourth of United States tablet sales.

The Appstore opened in Germany, France, Italy and Spain for access to Android apps. Amazon also opened key features to European customers, such as: localized content and store for each country, popular Amazon benefits like “Free App of the Day, personalized recommendations, and one-click payments.

“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 Vice President of Amazon Appstore Jim Adkins in a press release.

As for the Android-powered Kindle Fire—it is the “most successful product launch in the history of Amazon.com” after capturing 22 percent of tablet sales in the U.S. With that said, Amazon recently announced a press conference for Sept. 6 in Los Angeles. The company typically holds media events for hardware launches, so we expect new Kindles, such as an iPad-sized version, or maybe even an Amazon phone, to come down the pipeline.

“We’re grateful to the millions of customers who have made Kindle Fire the most successful product launch in the history of Amazon,” said Amazon.com Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in a press release. “Kindle Fire is sold out, but we have an exciting roadmap ahead—we will continue to offer our customers the best hardware, the best prices, the best customer service, the best cross-platform interoperability, and the best content ecosystem.”

The Kindle Fire debuted less than one year ago with a huge catalog of multimedia content including 22 million movies, games, books and more.

Check out the full press releases below.

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Amazon Appstore Launches in Europe; Now Available in the U.K., 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 monetize their apps and games

SEATTLE & LUXEMBOURG–(BUSINESS WIRE)–(NASDAQ: AMZN) – Amazon.com, Inc. today announced the launch of its Amazon Appstore in the U.K., 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 www.amazon.com/getappstore.

“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’s Appstore offers a great selection of games and apps, including local favorites like “Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals” and “Skyscanner,” established bestsellers like “Fruit Ninja” and “Cut the Rope,” and new apps from top-tier brands like Rovio and Glu Mobile. In addition to localized content and a localized 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.” All Free Apps of the Day are specially-selected for the Free App of the Day program. 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 personalized 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 U.S. 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 monetize 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 programs like Free App of the Day. And, to monetize 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 program 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 U.S. 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.”

In Germany, France and Italy, customers will find “App-Shop” available today; in Spain, customers will find “Tienda Apps;” and U.K. customers will find the “Amazon Appstore for Android.”

Kindle Fire—The #1 Best-Selling Product on Amazon Since Launch—Now Sold Out
In just 9 months, Kindle Fire captures 22% of U.S. tablet sales
10 of the top 10 best-selling items on Amazon since Kindle Fire launched are Kindle devices and content
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 30, 2012– (NASDAQ:AMZN)—Less than one year ago, Amazon introduced Kindle Fire—combining 15 years of innovation into a single, fully-integrated, end-to-end service for customers. Kindle Fire quickly became the most successful product launch in the history of Amazon.com, earning over 10,000 5-star customer reviews, and is the #1 best-selling product across the millions of items available on Amazon since its introduction 48 weeks ago. Today, Amazon announced that Kindle Fire is sold out, and that in just nine months, Kindle Fire has captured 22% of tablet sales in the U.S.
“We’re grateful to the millions of customers who have made Kindle Fire the most successful product launch in the history of Amazon,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “This has been a big year for digital products on Amazon—all of the top 10 sellers on Amazon.com since Kindle Fire launched just less than a year ago are digital products. Kindle Fire is sold out, but we have an exciting roadmap ahead—we will continue to offer our customers the best hardware, the best prices, the best customer service, the best cross-platform interoperability, and the best content ecosystem.”
Kindle Fire offers customers a vast selection of digital content—over 22 million movies, TV shows, apps, games, books, magazines and more—in one seamless, end-to-end experience, making it easy for customers to browse, discover and purchase. Since Kindle Fire launched last September, all of the top 10 products on Amazon—across all products—are digital products.

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