Amazon clears the air on their AppStore Developer Agreement

There seems to have been a bit of confusion over details in the Amazon AppStore Developer Agreement. There was apparently two different versions, one in PDF and one in text, and the plaint text version was an old version from before last November. Amazon had altered the ADA then, to reflect a definition of list price in the store. That likely means the some lazy intern forgot the post the new text file and confusion reigned. It’s now been fixed.

The Amazon App Store for Android launched on March 22, with a splash thanks to it’s exclusive distribution arrangement with Rovio to sell titles of Angry Birds. It also has a great daily feature which offers an app from the store for free and the apps rotate. In addition, the Amazon Appstore also offers a test drive feature which enables users to try out an app before they buy it courtesy of a virtual Android phone. That also gives users a chance to try out the Android platform themselves before taking the plunge. It’s a very cool feature.

App developers look to the Amazon App Store because it avoids Google’s attempt to control fragmentation by controlling which devices get the “Google Certified” moniker and as such, the Amazon Marketplace. Some would think that causes concern, but Amazon is taking a similar course as Apple has by requiring approval of their Apps before they are sold. This will also serve as a gatekeeper against hackers uploading infected apps like what happened a few years ago. So while Amazon’s App Store represents an alternative to Google’s Amazon Market, it does so by offering a safe environment for both app developers and consumers.

It’ll be interesting to see these two online portals go head to head.

[via Amazon AppStore Developer Blog]