The Amazon App Store is to open Tuesday, March 22, per Wired online.

Well, Nate at The-Digital-Reader site had the right date several days ago, and you should go there to read how he guessed the date.  It's more or less confirmed today by Brian X. Chen of Wired's Gadget Lab with a lot of interesting details provided by someone involved with the launch but who signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement (so much for Agreements, but it creates interest).

Coincidentally, Apple is in the middle of an approved-app flap today over an app that they designated had no "objectional material" but it's a guide to converting gays to straights.

 Amazon's already seen complaint-storms when customers did not 'approve' of subject matter in an e-book.  I think they'll be very busy.

Excerpts from Wired:

' Amazon’s Android app store will be a curated market, meaning Amazon reviewers will determine which apps are allowed inside, similar to Apple’s iTunes App Store.  That’s a contrast to Google’s “anything goes” policy for apps that appear in the Android Marketplace.
. . .
For apps that have links to purchase and download other apps, those links must go through the Amazon market. They may not contain URLs to apps on the Android market, our source added.
. . .
. . . it’s worth noting that Amazon payment systems are deployed in more countries than Google Checkout, so an Amazon app store may pose serious competition to the Android Marketplace, and possibly even iTunes.

TechCrunch has speculated that the Amazon app store may precede an Amazon-made tablet powered by the Android OS, enabling Amazon to more directly compete with Apple and other tablet manufacturers.

[ See Computerworld's early word on this information also, from sources, in November. ]

Multiple reports claim that Amazon will focus on lower prices for apps to gain a competitive edge.  Indeed, tech blog Android News looked through the 48 apps on the leaked webpage and found that prices of a few apps undercut the prices for the same respective apps listed on Google’s Marketplace. '

You can read the rest of this at Wired.  I left out quite a bit about how it'll work.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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