

Ask HN: Is it worth to develop Android apps for Amazon's Kindle? - rcorin

We&#x27;ve developed some Android apps that have achieved some popularity (4M~ downloads in total). We&#x27;ve been contacted by Amazon reps trying to entice us to support Kindle&#x27;s API. We&#x27;re not sure if it&#x27;s worth the hassle, though (would require lots of code patches and separate compilations), so we wanted to ask the community: have you done this? do you have any comparison between Play Store and Amazon&#x27;s?
thanks!
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bdfh42
The Amazon T&Cs might put you off - have a good read before you even think
about it.

I suspect (but have zero evidence)that Kindle buyers are not likely to be app
purchasers and while Android users generally can use the Amazon store I am not
at all sure this is their first choice when looking for an app.

It might be that the latest Kindle models will enter the mainstream as Android
tablets - have to see if that happens - the hardware specs are good. [anyone
know if they now ship with an up-to-date Android version?]

You would think that the amazon store would be very good at offering apps
alongside books if they might have a similar appeal (say a navigation app
alongside books on similar subjects) but I have seen little evidence of such
cross marketing - if that started to work then it would be a strong indicator
that the Amazon app store was capable of making an impact.

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rcorin
Thanks! Indeed we suspect it's likely like you say---Kindle people aren't app
purchasers, but we'd love to see some real evidence. We also offer ad-based
free apps, btw, and our category isn't reading & books, it's photography apps.

~~~
bdfh42
And there are masses of "how to" photography books - it would be great if
Amazon promoted you apps to everyone who purchased a book on that topic - but
do they?

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wanghq
You are talking about kindle fire not the e-ink kindle, right? Kindle fire
users do buy apps. Some articles you might can take a look:

[http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/25/reports-detail-amazon-
appst...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/25/reports-detail-amazon-appstores-
growing-influence-revenue-potential/)
[http://blog.apptopia.com/amazon_appstore/](http://blog.apptopia.com/amazon_appstore/)

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rcorin
actually, I'd welcome opinions where s/Amazon/XXX for XXX!=Google Play Store
:)

