Whenever I get a new Android device, I always throw on the Amazon App Store in order to get free, high-quality paid apps each day. While that’s great for consumers and has surely brought in a lot of traffic, is this approach good for app makers?
According to a blog post from the Shifty Jelly team, the Amazon App Store free app giveaway program is great for consumers and for Amazon but it can be kind of a raw deal for developers. The Shift Jelly team said that it was approached by Amazon to be the free paid app of the day but it wouldn’t receive any revenue for it. This isn’t the case of Amazon taking the financial hit, as the store is asking the developers to take the hit for good press and exposure.
The team took the chance on it and sold more than 10,000 apps when it was the free app of the day. Well, “sold” is a relative term because it made $0 off of that. It saw a minimal spike the next day and then quickly fell back to its normal volume. After this and some other beefs with the market, the team has completely removed its app from the Amazon App Store. It also said in a blog post:
What makes us mad though is the public perception that Amazon pays developers to be featured. Every single person we asked on Twitter or via email thought they were helping developers out, and getting a free application. Amazon does nothing to dispel these rumours, in fact they put really restrictive clauses at the bottom of their emails, saying that no one is even allowed to discuss these back door deals they are doing.
Of course, hearing from one spurned developer isn’t an accurate representation of the Amazon App Store but this definitely isn’t a good sign. Perhaps developers with alternative forms of monetization (in-app purchases, advertising, etc.) would be better off going into the free app of the day promotion.
[Via Shift Jelly]