“Amazon.com Inc., the world’s largest online retailer, plans to introduce virtual currency that can be used for purchases on the Kindle Fire tablet to entice more developers to create programs for the device,” Danielle Kucera reports for Bloomberg. “Starting in May, consumers will be able to use Amazon Coins to buy applications and virtual merchandise sold within games, the Seattle-based company said today in a statement. The company will give customers ‘tens of millions of dollars’ worth of the currency, which will be accepted in the Amazon Appstore.”
Kucera reports, “Amazon has been targeting developers to improve its app store, giving programmers the ability to make more engaging games and help it chase Apple Inc.’s lead in the tablet market. Apple’s share of the market slipped to 44 percent from 52 percent in the fourth quarter, from a year earlier, while Samsung’s share more than doubled to 15 percent, according to researcher IDC. Amazon’s market share slipped to 12 percent from 16 percent.”
“Developers will continue to get the 70 percent revenue share from purchases made with the coins. After the coin giveaway ends, customers will be able to buy the tokens using Amazon accounts, the company said,” Kucera reports. “Even with its new features, Amazon is playing catch-up with Apple and Google Inc’s Android mobile operating platform. Amazon currently has more than 68,000 apps in its store, compared with 4,000 when the store debuted in March 2011, the company said. Google and Apple have about 700,000 apps apiece in their stores.”
MacDailyNews Take: Not all apps are tablet apps. There are but a pittance of apps designed for Android tablets. Apple currently has over 300,000 apps designed specifically for iPad and iPad mini. Furthermore, Apple has over 800,000 apps currently, not “about 700,000.” Otherwise, they typed snidely, Kucera is correct.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Will these “Amazon Coins” be predicated on customers always having an incompatible number of “Amazon Coins” for their purchase (see: Microsoft Points), thereby always carrying some leftovers which amount to an interest free loan to Amazon, a company with billions of real dollars in profits?
As stupid and useless as Microsoft Points. Consumers don’t need these ridiculous pseudo-currencies. We already have US dollars to spend.
Clever trick. Amazon gives away $100 MM in “coins”. Customers spend them. Amazon books $100MM in revenue. Coins cost nothing to generate. Like printing money.
They still have to pay the devs in $
Rocky to Bullwinkle:
“Oh, that trick NEVER works!”
MDN stole my post about the Microsoft Points. Lovely scam it was though.
@ MDN’s take: Ditto!
LOL. That’s incredibly unnecessary and stupid.
I like how IDC states Samedung increased their tablet share when no numbers have been publicly released by Shamdung.
Was travelling around the US last week. iPads in airports and planes EVERYWHERE. I saw maybe two non-Apple tablets. For people who can spend money, iPad is the only choice.
You should travel around the US by bus and you will likely see a lot of Kindles and iPad wannabes.
Really?
Déja vu Zune Store. (gag!)
So AndRhoid users need a layer of abstraction away from actual dough, money, cash because WHY? This comes off as just another dumbass marketing trick with no point beyond someone’s concept of a ‘GeeWhiz!’ Factor.
So Amazon: Why don’t you just keep things real and have sales on apps like everyone else? That’s too easy for customers to comprehend? 😯
Will work with a lot of Amazon customers.
However, Uncle Sam will tax this. If someone earns this virtual currency, it will be taxable….soon.
Interesting point.
It’s just a way to pay Kindle owners “money” without calling it that, to give welfare to developers to develop applications. 10 to 1 in a few years the coins will be discontinued or some madness.
It’s called a credit card. Or a debit card. Or a pre-paid cash card.
The only difference is that “Amazon Bucks” are only good in Amazon’s store. So initially, Amazon is going to have an expense (giving away this special “money”) which will simply come back as revenue, minus the “cut” they still have to pay the content providers (with REAL money).
Seems like a pretty dumb idea…
Amazon and Microsoft use the Virtual fake money that has no cash value for two purposes. 1) it always them to target minors and less financially savvy people. Easier to separate a fool and his/her money when that money in question has no real cash value. 2) it allows them to hide, obscure and manipulate customers easier when the real costs of any digital product is purposely obscured and hidden from the customer.
As a bonus Microsoft and Amazon end up with huge extra windfalls, because you spend $XX.xx of X number of virtual no cash value money. Microsoft and Amazon book the sale and the 100% profit right away. as a person spends the X number of fake no cash value Amazon and Microsoft get to deduct 100% losses on all digital goods sold and then get to deduct the payments to the content owners. So, in effect they get to deduct 180% of all digital goods sold and as a plus because the user can never achieve a zero balance on their digital account it locks the user into the account, due to human nature of not wanting to walk away from their money. if the user does walk away from the account then Microsoft and Amazon just profit that much more from their deceptive business practices.
For Amazon the Coins are just an extension for their corporate bait and switch business model. Microsoft points are an extension of Microsoft’s general idea of embrace and extend that failed to Live up to Microsoft’s claim that in time Microsoft points would replace money as payment on the web. Microsoft being Microsoft is now to foolish to admit that they were wrong and kill the Microsoft points scheme.
These schemes always fail in the end because they are anti-consumer and are off putting to the vast majority of consumers. The era of no cash value virtual tokens like MS point, Amazon Coins, Facebook Money are nothing more that the S and H Green Stamps of the past and they are doomed to repeat the past of the saver stamp era and most likely the same law suites too.
Oh FFS.
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