Amazon's Android Appstore, not so amazing
Running a successful app store isn't trivial. Building out the necessary features and services and making it appealing to both consumers and developers can be hard work, something Amazon is learning. The company has been taken to task …
Context & Ripple Effects
Amazon entered Android app distribution at the start of 2011 under immediate structural pressure: Google's Android Market rules threatened how Amazon could even distribute its own store, since the storefront depends on side-loading outside Google's first-party channel. By June, Apple had publicly branded the e-store 'inferior' in its dispute over the 'App Store' trademark (Apple slams Amazon's Android e-store).
This piece adds a functional critique to the legal ones: running a two-sided marketplace is hard work, and Amazon is reportedly short on the features and services needed to win both consumers and developers. The same pattern shows up elsewhere in its portfolio — the company launched Cloud Player without license agreements, drawing displeasure from major music labels, suggesting an organization that ships fast and patches the ecosystem relationships afterward.
First-order effects
- Developers deciding where to ship their Android apps face a store whose merchandising, submission, and consumer-facing tooling lag the Android Market — meaning Amazon's reach depends on paying its way past the experience gap rather than winning on quality.
- Consumers get a curated alternative to the Android Market but inherit the friction of side-loading plus a thinner feature set, capping the store's audience at enthusiasts willing to tolerate both.
Second-order effects
- Amazon must either invest heavily in storefront features or lean on its retail levers — promotions, free paid-app giveaways — to keep developers interested while Google's Market rules constrain how the store itself reaches users.
- The criticism hands Google and Apple ready-made talking points: Google can point to its first-party distribution advantage, and Apple's 'inferior' framing gains an independent echo from reviewers rather than just a trademark litigant.
Third-order effects
- If third-party Android storefronts cannot close the feature gap, Android distribution trends back toward consolidation around first-party channels — leaving carriers, OEMs, and retailers like Amazon competing on price and bundling rather than on store quality.
- The broader Amazon pattern visible here and in the unlicensed Cloud Player launch — shipping services before securing the surrounding agreements — raises the question of whether speed-to-market can substitute for ecosystem trust across its media and platform businesses.
The trend: Android app distribution is fragmenting into competing storefronts, and Amazon's early stumbles show that second entrants are being judged on curation depth and developer services, not just the existence of an alternative to Google's Market.