Amazon is claiming that the move towards its virtual currency will benefit not only Amazon customers but developers themselves, by allowing them to increase monetization and proliferation of their apps. Amazon App Store developers will not lose out on any profits either, with the existing 70% revenue share for app purchases still holding true.

If you’re a Kindle Fire owner, you should have 500 Amazon Coins waiting for you. So fire up those tablets and get to spending the new currency!

Official press release follows below.

Amazon Coins Now Available for Kindle Fire Customers

Every Kindle Fire owner in the U.S. will find $5 worth of free Coins deposited directly into their Amazon account

Customers can also purchase Coins in bulk and receive a discount up to 10%

Tens of millions of dollars worth of Amazon Coins are now in customers’ accounts to spend on developers’ apps

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May. 13, 2013– —(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today announced that customers can now use Amazon Coins to purchase apps, games and in-app items in the Amazon Appstore and on Kindle Fire. To celebrate the launch, existing and new Kindle Fire customers in the U.S. have had 500 free Coins—a $5 value—deposited into their Amazon accounts today. For customers, Amazon Coins is an easy way to purchase apps and in-app items on Kindle Fire, and for developers it’s another opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increased monetization. With discounts of up to 10% for purchasing Coins in bulk, it’s also an opportunity for customers to save money on their app and game purchases. Customers can purchase Coins by visiting amazon.com/coins.“Today we are giving Kindle Fire owners $5 worth of Coins to spend on new apps and games, or to purchase in-app items, such as recipes in iCookbook, song collections in SongPop or mighty falcon bundles in Angry Birds Star Wars. And with discounts of up to 10% when you buy Coins, this is a great way for customers to save money when they buy apps, games and in-app items,” said Mike George, Vice President of Apps and Games at Amazon. “We will continue to add more ways to earn and spend Coins on a wider range of content and activities—today is Day One for Coins.”Amazon Appstore developers will earn their standard 70% revenue share when customers make purchases using Amazon Coins. No Coins-specific changes are required for developers with apps and games currently in the Amazon Appstore. Developers not yet in the Amazon Appstore should submit their app today through the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Portal (http://developer.amazon.com/welcome.html).Amazon Coins is the latest offering in an array of services that make Amazon the most complete end-to-end ecosystem for building, monetizing and marketing their apps and games. These capabilities include:

• The ability for app developers to use Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) technology platform for their infrastructure needs. Building blocks such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and Amazon DynamoDB allow developers to focus on what differentiates their app rather than the undifferentiated heavy lifting of infrastructure.
• App submission for distribution to nearly 200 countries globally enables developers to reach millions more Amazon customers worldwide.
• In-App Purchasing on Kindle Fire, Mac, PC and web-based games. This enables developers to sell virtual items in their apps and games while allowing their end users to simply use their Amazon accounts to make the purchase.
• GameCircle, which includes capabilities like Achievements, Leaderboards, Friends and Whispersync for syncing games across devices, and leads to better engagement with games.
• Game Connect, which lets developers list their virtual goods for sale on Amazon, increasing discoverability of their games and making the purchase of virtual goods as easy and convenient as possible for customers, leading to increased monetization for developers.

[Via: TechnoBuffalo]

According to the report, Amazon is developing smartphone prototypes at Amazon’s Lab126 in Cupertino, where the projects are known as “Alphabet Projects,” with project names of Project A,B,C and D. If the development produces successful progress, the Amazon hardware could make its debut in the coming months.

Amazon has already had a huge success with its Kindle line of tablets, and has seen its online stores grow immensely over the last few years. The Amazon phones are a logical move for the company, as the rumored smartphones in development will be directly tied to Amazon content that Kindle users have already purchased.

Time will tell if these smartphones will see the light of day soon, and if Amazon will be shipping them with their customized Android OS, which does not allow for usage of many Google and Play Store apps. What do you think of an Amazon smartphone? And is a 3D display really necessary? Remember the EVO3D? Yeah, that didn’t do so well….

[Via: Engadget]

Providing a direct option for consumers would allow the company to step away from depending on third-party platforms, such as Roku, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Android and iOS. BusinessWeek’s sources claim the new device will be launched sometime in the Fall.

Of course, Amazon hasn’t responded to this report. Though having a set-top box would definitely put their content front and center ahead of competing video streaming services like Hulu Plus and Netflix. Honestly if this report turns out to be true, it would not be at all surprising — this is what Amazon does. They offer a device for dirt cheap to push their content, which is their standard approach to customers.

That being said, Amazon has lots of room to bring in more products like this, just think about the long rumored phone. Regardless, whatever Amazon ultimately reveals, we’re sure folks will buy it up.

[via BusinessWeek]

]]> http://www.intomobile.com/2013/04/24/amazon-plans-launch-its-own-video-streaming-settop-box/feed/ 0 http://www.intomobile.com/2013/04/23/xbox-smartglass-lands-on-amazon%e2%80%99s-kindle-fire-tablets/ http://www.intomobile.com/2013/04/23/xbox-smartglass-lands-on-amazon%e2%80%99s-kindle-fire-tablets/#comments Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:00:11 +0000 Charles West http://www.intomobile.com/?p=419289 ... Read more]]> Microsoft is bringing its Xbox SmartGlass application to Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD tablets. Us folks in the United States get first dibs, while our friends across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom will have to wait a bit longer.

Now owners of the Kindle Fire family of tablets can indulge in SmartGlass’ cool technology that shows a second screen companion application that works with an Xbox 360. In addition to a second screen, the app offers remote control functionality and added content for certain video, music and game features.

Xbox SmartGlass technology is awesome because it allows users to ditch their annoying gamepad controls when watching a movie on their Xbox 360. Furthermore, users can also browse through their Xbox Music account more easily by way of the app. This application vastly improves the user experience, essentially eliminating all clunky and troublesome handling of media on the Xbox.

The SmartGlass app is free to download for every major platform except for BlackBerry 10. Kindle owners head to your Kindle AppStore to get the app.

If you happen to have the Xbox SmartGlass app on your Kindle Fire tablet, please share with us how you like it in our comment section!

[via pocket-lint]

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 will be hitting the U.K. with a price tag of £229 for the 16GB and £259 for the 32GB, although no details on pricing yet for other regions. So far, Amazon has only offered its 7-inch Kindle Fire HD model abroad.

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 sports a Dual core 1500 MHz, ARM Cortex-A9, 1 GB of RAM, 16 or 32 GB of onboard storage, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, Wi-Fi and stereo speakers and a 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution IPS display.

Using Amazon’s cloud storage and Appstore, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 gives users access to all media and e-books purchased or stored with their Amazon account. Amazon offers many apps through its app store, with many titles available that are also on the Google Play Store.

So if you’re looking for a tablet that is both affordable and easy to use, be sure to check out the Kindle Fire HD 8.9.

[Via: Mobile Burn]

The smartphone was supposed to complete its engineering verification test, but is still stuck in that realm due to issues related with its mobile platform, according to sources. The development of the Kindle smartphone is being handled by Ensky Tech, a subsidiary of Foxconn.

Based on the current production schedule, the Android based Kindle smartphone production will probably not being en masse until June of this year.

This is all still rumor, so keep your eyes peeled for developments on the upcoming Kindle smartphone. The unit is expected to cost between $100 and $249, and may be bundled with six months of 4G LTE data.

[Via: DigiTimes]

Seven percent seems like a tiny number to tout, but if you look at the numbers as a whole, you’d have to give Amazon its props. Think about it. Amazon is still coming in second ahead of huge conglomerates such as Samsung and HP — who have millions, even billions (in Sammy’s case) of dollars for marketing its products.

Make no mistake, we don’t think a 7 percent purchase intent is something Amazon should be comfortable with. But since Amazon was ahead of the curve with the sub-$200 price bracket, the company should be sitting pretty for the time being. The $200 price tag for a tablet is a huge area to exploit, Google realized this when it launched its Nexus 7 tab (selling millions already); even Apple eventually came around to sell a cheaper and smaller iPad.

The “low-end” tablet market is expected to grow, and Amazon could capture 20 percent of it. That type of clout can be great for the online merchant’s book and video content. Hell, parts may start to become more cheaper, too. It will be interesting to see where Amazon’s numbers will be the same time next year.

[Yankee Group; via BGR]