Which IoT platforms are competing with Apple and Google? Which are the most popular cloud APIs? Does mobile, IoT or cloud development pay better? These are just some of the questions that our friends at VisionMobile tackle in their latest Developer Economics research. Take their 10-minute National Trends survey and help piece together 2015’s hottest developer trends.

Participants can win awesome prizes like an MS Surface 3, Lumia 635, iPhone 6s, Parrot AR Drone 2.0, Blackberry Passport, as well as one of 200 Amazon vouchers! In addition to prizes, survey participants will also get the chance to see a) how they compare to other developers from their country/region and b) how their country compares to other countries from the developer landscape. Access to graphs will be given upon survey completion and upon survey closing respectively. As always, the key findings will be released as a free report in February. 

Now in its 10th edition, the Developer Economics National Trends survey is designed to cover the whole developer spectrum - that means from hobbyists to enterprise developers alike. So whether you’re involved in mobile, IoT, desktop or Cloud, Developer Economics is asking the right questions. 

Take the survey and win some prizes while you’re at it!

With Advertise Your App, you can promote your app to millions of users  through ads on Fire tablet wakescreens and mobile placements on the Amazon Mobile Ad Network. Getting started is easy; you can create an Advertise Your App campaign in less than 90 seconds, and launch a campaign with as little as $100. And the best part? You only pay when a user clicks on your ads.

Recently we added a new feature to help developers improve campaign performance: custom creative. With custom creative, you can upload your own ad creative and use different images and copy for each ad size. You now have several options: you can continue to use the auto-generated ads that we create, you can create custom ads based on your own creative and copy, or you can combine auto-generated ads and custom ads in your campaign.

To create a custom ad, login to the Developer Portal and in the “Ad Preview” section, click the “Customize ads” button and upload your creative from there. Not sure how to get started? Below are 5 tips to help you create engaging custom display ads.

Since the launch of Amazon Coins in 2013, customers have already spent hundreds of millions of Amazon Coins. For developers, Amazon Coins gives customers more ways to buy, and more incentives to download and use your apps and games.  While customers save when they pay using Amazon Coins, Amazon Appstore developers continue to earn their standard 70% revenue share.  Customers enjoy real savings, while developers get their full revenue share.

From October 24^th through November 1^st, your customers can purchase 5,000 and 10,000 coin bundles at a 20% discount, which allows them to double their savings on games and in-app items, so they can spend less & play more.

Learn More

• To download the Amazon Appstore, click here.
• To buy Amazon Coins click here
• Create a free Amazon Developer Account here.

The mobile game development community is chock-full of vibrant developers such as yourself, with amazing creativity, innovation and passion for games. Chartboost can help get your amazing mobile game in front of millions of players through the Amazon Appstore across Amazon and Android devices.

To do that, Chartboost created the GameOn program. Together we’re offering $100 in free Chartboost ad credit to 500 qualified Chartboost users. You can use these credits to promote all your games for which you’ve implemented the Chartboost SDK across multiple platforms –Apple Appstore, Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore.

Today, Amazon is pleased to share Chartboost with Appstore game developers. Chartboost is the largest mobile-games only platform, helping game developers increase revenue and discover new players. According to Chartboost, they power over 200,000 games with 700 million monthly active players and drive over 20 billion monthly game sessions per month.

Tools Mobile Game Developers Love

Chartboost’s technology enables Amazon developers to acquire players with positive ROI and grow revenue. Their Cross Promotion tool to lets you promote your new titles to the players who already love your other mobile games with free interstitial and mobile video ads. With their unique Direct Deals Marketplace, you can connect with other game developers and act as a publisher and/or advertiser, on terms that both sides agree upon. This allows you to cut out the middleman completely, and keep 100% of the revenue you generate.

“Every mobile game that I know is using Chartboost. They understand what mobile game developers need to build a successful business.”

Tommy Palm, Candy Crush Mastermind

Amazon developers can conduct large-scale advertising campaigns that reap high quality players with positive ROI and greatly enhance revenue with made-for-mobile interstitial ads and gorgeous, 100% viewable mobile video ads—all through one lightweight SDK. In addition, Chartboost provides an easy-to-use dashboard for developers, with granular control over who advertises in your mobile games, ad location, targeting options and so much more.

Get Started in Minutes

Developers can start growing their mobile games business on Amazon with Chartboost, today. To get started, sign up for an account and download the lightweight Chartboost Android SDK that takes only five minutes to integrate.

-Ankur

Want Amazon Developer blogs delivered to your inbox? Stay in the loop on the latest industry best practices, Amazon promotions, and new launches by subscribing to our weekly blog summary here.

Publish your first app to the Amazon Appstore between October 1st – November 1st and we'll help you drive installs, monetize, and scale with a Success Bundle worth up to $700 including:

   • $100 Ad Campaign with Advertise Your App

   • Doubled Earnings on up to $500 with the Amazon Mobile Ad Network 

   • $100 in AWS promotional credits

Your Apps & Games on More Devices

The Amazon Appstore is preloaded on Fire devices, Blackberry 10 and millions of other Android devices, including certain HTC, LG, Motorola, and Samsung phones to name a few, as well as certain Samsung and LG tablets. Fire tablets expand that reach even further - just in time for the holiday season. App purchases typically surge by 50% Thanksgiving week, and 400% during digital week. And when customers unbox their new Fire tablet, what’s the first thing they do?  Start downloading apps and games of course! Now is the time to develop a new app or bring your existing Android app to Fire tablets.

Want to Learn More?

Join us for a special webinar on how to make the most of the Amazon Success Bundle:

• Register for October 14, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT (2:00PM GMT)
• Register for October 14, 2014 at 1:00PM PDT (8:00PM GMT)

Today we announced Merch by Amazon, a new self-service program designed to help you increase revenue through the sale of branded t-shirts designed by you and produced, sold and shipped by Amazon. With the print on demand service, you sell only the t-shirts your customers want to buy.  You never have to worry about inventory or out-of-pocket costs.  For every t-shirt sold, you earn a royalty.  The more t-shirts sold, the higher the royalty is.

To get started, simply set-up your Merch by Amazon account, upload the artwork for your t-shirt, and push submit - Amazon takes care of the rest.  In a matter of hours, your custom t-shirt is available for sale worldwide on Amazon.com.  Once you’ve created your custom t-shirts, you can also promote them in-game on the Android, Fire OS, or iOS versions of your game via Amazon Mobile Ads.

Supporting the announcement of the new Amazon Fire TV family, Amazon’s App Testing Service (ATS) has been updated to work seamlessly with Fire OS 5 and Fire TV devices. In as little as 90 seconds, you can receive a detailed report of potential issues that could affect compatibility with the Amazon Appstore—including guidance on how to resolve them before publishing. ATS can also run your app on actual Amazon Fire TV devices, providing a comprehensive compatibility report (including screenshots) in as little as 15 minutes.

Starting today, you have the option to participate in a preview of Amazon’s new Developer Publishing API. The Developer Publishing API is a RESTful API that allows you to update existing apps and submit new Android apps to the Amazon Appstore. By integrating the Developer Publishing API with your existing backend, content management systems, and configurations tools, you can more easily manage large quantities of apps and games. Click here to learn more.

Participate in the Developer Publishing API Preview

The Developer Publishing API allows a registered Appstore developer to programmatically submit new apps as well as submit updates to existing apps. Applying to participate in the developer preview is easy:

1. Register for a FREE Amazon Devleoper account.
2. Apply for the Developer Publishing API Preview.

Right now, this service is only available for free apps. If you are selected to participate, we will contact you with next steps. To invoke the Developer Publishing API from your code, please consider using a convenient web client library, such as Apache HTTPClient

Want To Learn More?

Now is the time to get started. Check out the resources below to learn more about the Developer Publishing API and the Amazon Appstore.

Learn more about the Developer Publishing API

Register for a Free Amazon Developer account

Sign up for the Developer Publishing API Preview

Want Amazon Developer blogs delivered to your inbox? Stay in the loop on the latest industry best practices, Amazon promotions, and new launches by subscribing to our weekly blog summary here.

Today, Amazon is excited to introduce its best-selling Fire TV family of devices in Japan—Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, small devices connect to your home Internet and plug into your HDTV for easy and instant access to thousands of movies and TV shows from Hulu, Prime Video, GYAO!, Netflix, Amazon Video, YouTube.com, niconico, Video Market, and more. Since launch, Fire TV has become the #1 best-selling Amazon device category, with Fire TV Stick quickly becoming Amazon’s fastest-selling product ever. Today, Amazon is introducing the next generation of Amazon Fire TV—the new Amazon Fire TV with support for 4K Ultra HD, and the new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote in Japan.

Last year, Amazon introduced the first Amazon Fire TV, combining voice search that actually works, fast and powerful performance, and an open ecosystem to deliver the easiest way to watch Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO NOW, Hulu, WatchESPN, and more on your big-screen TV. Since launch, Fire TV has become the #1 best-selling Amazon device category, with Fire TV Stick quickly becoming Amazon’s fastest-selling product ever. Today, Amazon is making those best-selling products even better. Introducing the next generation of Amazon Fire TV—the new Amazon Fire TV with support for 4K Ultra HD, and the new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote. The new Amazon Fire TV is available for pre-order today for just $99.99 at www.amazon.com/firetv, and will start shipping on October 5. Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote is available for pre-order today for $49.99 at www.amazon.com/firetvstick, and will start shipping October 22.  Fire TV Stick is also still available for purchase for $39.99 at www.amazon.com/fire-tv-stick.

Amazon today introduced all-new Fire tablets, including a new 7” tablet that sets an entirely new standard for a tablet under $50. The new Fire tablets are designed from the ground up for entertainment with a 7”, 8” or 10” display, an incredibly thin and light design, quad-core processor, front- and rear-facing cameras, and up to 128GB of expandable storage. The all-new Fire tablets also introduce Fire OS 5 “Bellini”, which brings the best entertainment experience on any tablet, with an updated user interface, deep integration of Amazon-exclusive services, and hundreds of new and upgraded features and platform updates. Key upgrades and enhancements include:

Do you want to reach new customers for your mobile apps and games? Or are you an enthusiast who always wanted to build and publish your first app and are looking for inspiration to finally dive in and get started?

Thanks to the folks over at Appy Pie, now is the perfect time to fire up their App Maker or Game Builder (whatever suits your fancy) and turn your amazing idea into a product – without programming. Appy Pie just launched the Appy Pie App Challenge, which rewards developers for submitting their apps and games built using Appy Pie to the Amazon Appstore. From now, until October 11^th, you can earn a Kindle Fire HDX 7 inch tablet and a $10 in Amazon.com gift card. 

We are excited to announce that Amazon Cloud Drive has published its IFTTT channel. IFTTT stands for “If This Then That”, and it provides a simple way to automate interactions between your favorite apps. It connects two services together in a way that an action from one service triggers an action at another.

In order to create automations in IFTTT, you simply create what’s called a “Recipe”. Connect any of the available channels with Amazon Cloud Drive channel to create “Triggers,” which is the “If” part. Then,   have the corresponding “Actions,” the Then part. You can check out the Amazon Cloud Drive channel at https://ifttt.com/amazonclouddrive. IFTTT channels include a vast range including social media services, email, text message, GPS, electronic piggy banks and smart light bulbs.

Starting today, developers can sign up for the Fire OS 5 Developer Preview for Amazon Fire TV. This preview is designed for developers looking to get their apps and games ready for the next major release of Fire OS for Amazon Fire TV. Fire OS 5 is based on Android 5.1 (Lollipop) and API 22. Since this is a significant upgrade to the existing Fire OS 3 (API 17) for Fire TV, we wanted to make sure that as many developers as possible can sign up for the preview and test their app or game. The key new features for Amazon Fire TV developers in Fire OS 5 are support for Android TV and the v17 Leanback library. If you have an app that supports Android TV or Leanback, those features should work as-is in the Amazon Fire TV developer preview. Here are a few of the other features available in the Fire OS 5 Developer Preview for Amazon Fire TV: