Amazon will be sending tens of millions of dollars to Kindle Fire users; money that can only be used to buy apps for Kindle Fire.  If you don’t want to miss a minute of that action, make sure your app is available for sale on Kindle Fire devices, or submit a Kindle Fire compatible app by April 25 for the best chance of getting in the Amazon Appstore in time. (If you submit after 4/25, your app will still be eligible, but may not make the start of the gold rush.)

What kind of money is this?

In May, Amazon is introducing Amazon Coins, a new virtual currency that customers can use to pay for apps and most in-app-purchase items. To help promote this new currency, Amazon is going to give away tens of millions of dollars in Amazon Coins to Kindle Fire users. This money will be burning a proverbial hole in customers’ pockets as they look for places to spend it. We’d like your app to be one of the tempting places to spend that currency.

How do Amazon Coins work?

U.S. customers will be able to spend Amazon Coins on apps and most in-app purchase items. (Subscriptions cannot be purchased with Amazon Coins.) Each Amazon Coin is worth 1-cent, so a $2.99 app will cost 299 coins. The way you get paid doesn’t change if the customer pays with Amazon Coins or a credit card; you get paid in real U.S. Dollars, at the same 70% revenue share you normally receive.

What do I have to do for my app to be eligible for Amazon Coins?

If your app is available for sale on a Kindle Fire device, then you’re done; nothing else to do. It doesn’t matter if your app is also available on other Android devices, as long as it is available on a Kindle Fire device, it is eligible.

My app isn’t available on Kindle Fire now. How can I fix that?

If you already have an app in the Amazon Appstore for Android, it’s fairly easy to make it available for Kindle Fire Tablets. Take a look at the Kindle Fire Development Best Practices here for hints on how to make your app shine on Kindle Fire, and then re-submit your app with the appropriate Kindle Fire devices selected on the Binary Files tab (see below).

Please submit your apps by April 25th to give us the best chance of having enough time to review them and get them in the Amazon Appstore before tens of millions of dollars in Amazon Coins arrive in customers’ accounts.

If you don’t have an app in the Amazon Appstore, don’t worry. You may be able to submit your existing Android app without too much work.  If you use Google Play Services for In-App Billing, Messaging, or Maps, you will need to replace them with the corresponding Amazon APIs before submitting. These APIs are:

• Amazon In-App Purchasing API
• Amazon Device Messaging API
• Amazon Maps API

Learn more about these APIs here.

For more information on making your app available on Kindle Fire devices, check out these links:

1. Create an account on the Mobile App Distribution Portal
2. Download the Amazon Mobile App SDK
3. Review the Kindle Fire development resources

For more detailed information on Amazon Coins, see the FAQ for Amazon Coins.