Amazon

Amazon rolled out another update today for their app store and this one is definitely worth a look. This 16-month-old app store launched last year with a useful feature; you could test drive apps befoe you bought them.

At that time you could only test drive from a browser which supported Flash but not from inside the app store itself. Today that changes. Today’s update includes a bug fix, stability enhancements, and one major new feature.

You can now test drive apps from your Android device. This only works on some devices and it’s limiyed to around 5,000 apps, but it’s still a major improvement. It drastically reduces the risk that a paid app might come up short. It will even help with free apps; now you won’t have to download a dozen or more identical apps just to find the one that has the one feature you need.

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Amazon followed in the footsteps of Dropbox, Google and others today. They’ve just released the first apps for their cloud storage service, thus removing the need to access it via a web browser. The apps aren’t going to do much good, though, because the Windows app doesn’t support XP, which is still the most popular version of Windows. But at least Vista and Windows 7 owners will be to upload docs, music, and photos.

There’s no word yet on apps for other platforms, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see an app released for the Kindle Fire in short order.

Amazon

If you’re still looking for a tablet then I have the deal for you. Amazon has the refurbished Kindle Fire on sale today for thirty dollars off the regular price. It’s a pretty good deal. The refurbished tablets are  indistinguishable from new ones and they come with the same warranty.

Amazon

Amazon released its quarterly earnings results today and revealed that the Kindle Fire remains its bestselling product of all items available on Amazon.com since launch. In addition, during the first quarter of 2012, 90 percent of the top selling products from Amazon.com were digital products, which the company defines as “Kindle, Kindle books, movies, music and apps.”

Here is more from the press release: “Net sales increased 34% to $13.18 billion in the first quarter, compared with $9.86 billion in first quarter 2011. Excluding the$56 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales would have grown 34% compared with first quarter 2011.”

Amazon also reported that sales of “Worldwide Electronics and Other General Merchandise” grew 43% during the quarter to $7.97 billion.

Amazon has formed a partnership with an Indian software company called EdServ Softsystems Ltd. Inc. to create educational software apps for the Kindle Store.

The Wall Street Journal has more: “Chennai-based EdServ said its EdServ 2tionPlus educational applications will now be available to be downloaded on tablet computers working on Google Inc.’s Android operating system. The company added that it will provide its entire online education content on Amazon App Stores, but it didn’t reveal specific details of the deal.”

EdServ is already working to create educational content  on smartphones and counts partnerships with Blackberry, Nokia and Samsung. S. Giridharan, chairman/CEO of EdServ commented on the Amazon partnership: “Through this tie up with Amazon.com, we will provide the entire online education content that includes Tuition, Academics, Skill Development, and Test Prep Services on the Amazon Apps Stores.”

Amazon is now shipping its Kindle Touch eInk eReader to customers in the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany.

Apps for the device include Every Word, Easy Calculator, and Bubble Pop, which are available through Amazon’s Active Content department in the Kindle store.

At this point Europeans haven’t been able to buy the Kindle Fire for the European Amazon stores. This tablet has access to the Amazon App Store. Engadget has more: “Alas, there’s still no news of a Eurozone arrival date for the Kindle Fire. We assume our European readers are still willing to wait, right?”

Amazon is expected to sell 2 million Kindle Fires in Q1 2012, which is less than the 2.2 units which has been predicted, according to Pacific Crest analyst Chad Bartley.

Bartley’s conclusions come from an intent-to-purchase survey that Pacific Crest conducted among consumers. Mac Observer has more: “In the brokerage firm’s Q1 survey, some 4.9 percent of respondents said they intended to buy a Kindle Fire tablet. In the Q2 survey, which was just conducted, that number had declined to 4.5 percent. This matches the analyst’s supply checks, which indicated a 10 percent month-over-month decline in component orders in February, and a further 15 percent sequential decline in March.”

Are you planning to buy a Kindle Fire? Why/why not?

HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster have settled with the Justice Department  after being sued over alleged eBook price fixing. Apple and Macmillan are standing their ground  and going to court over the issue. With agency pricing on the way out, people in the publishing world are speculating about what this means for Amazon.

The Wall Street Journal reports: “Amazon called the settlement a victory for consumers and users of its Kindle e-reading device. It promised to renew discounting, which could put pressure on such rivals asBarnes & Noble Inc. ’We look forward to being allowed to lower prices on more Kindle books,’ Amazon said.”

What will Amazon, not bound to an agency model, do with the prices or its eBooks? James McQuivey, principal analyst at Forrester, told Digital Book World, ”Amazon is going to want to bring prices down but they’re going to do it strategically. Amazon will lower prices with some best-sellers first, but they’re not going to cut across the board.”

What do you think?

Amazon’s digital sales grew 29% for Q1 2012 compared to Q4 2011, while  iTunes sales only grew 2% during the same period. This is according to a new report from intelligence company eDataSource, which estimated of the sales of both iTunes and Amazon’s digital business as part of its new e-commerce monitoring service.

The report included Kindle content, MP3 sales, streaming videos and Android apps when measuring Amazon’s digital business and included music, video, apps and digital print in  iTunes sales.

While Amazon’s business appears to be growing faster in these numbers, the report points out that iTunes sales still are 3.5x higher than Amazon’s digital sales volume domestically. In addition, the report found that iTunes customers spend 61% more than Amazon digital customers. Read more

Amazon has just announced support for a new feature in their app store. Starting today, developers will be able to use the new In-App Purchasing API to sell content and upgrade to customers from inside their existing apps.

This feature has been in a beta test for the past several months. Publishers including Condé Nast, Dow Jones, and New York Post have been using the API, as well as several developers.

“Amazon’s in-app purchasing solution created a great way for us to reduce friction and drive more revenue from our games, as millions of people already have Amazon accounts,” said Michael Ritter, Senior Vice President Licensing & Distribution at Social Gaming Network, maker of Warp Rush, Dress Up Fashion, Bird’s the Word, and Night of the Living Dead Defense.  “Kindle Fire already has a well-integrated store front and marketplace to distribute mobile games.  By enabling in-app purchases we are able to be more flexible in pricing. We can release free games, provide updates and enhancements, and continue to monetize.”

Previously, as indicated by Flurry’s tracking data, app developers had to use third party software to process the payments. Now Amazon will be able to do it for the developers, saving them time and money.