Tuesday, May 6^th

Appstore Developer Select: How to Reach More Customers

We released a video that covers the benefits and requirements for the Amazon Developer Select Program.  This program is designed to help get your apps noticed and in front of new customers.

Wednesday, May 7^th

Amazon Mobile Ads API Increases Monetization Opportunities with Expansion into Europe and New Interstitial Ad Format

We announced Amazon Mobile Ads API is now serving ads in the United Kingdom with Germany following in the coming months.  Interstitial Ads support was also added giving your apps the ability to generate greater revenue than using traditional banner ads.

Thursday, May 8^th

ADB Debugging: How to Test Your Android APK on Fire TV

We released a video that walks through ADB debugging on Amazon Fire TV.  For additional information on setting up the ADB driver for Kindle Fire devices you can read our post here.

Wednesday, April 30^th

Building Responsive Game Design: Making Games That Scale across Desktop, Mobile and TV

We talked about responsive game design and what you can do to have your game run across multiple platforms and form factors like Tablets, Phones and now Amazon Fire TV.

Thursday, May 1^st

Discount Your App and Receive Free Merchandising from Amazon Appstore

We announced the ability to now set a specific time for discount campaigns on your apps and in-app items.  In the Developer Promotions Console (DPC) you simply select when and where these discounts will now be available and then activate them worldwide instantly, or over time in one or more marketplaces.

Friday, May 2^nd

BI Insider: Amazon Appstore Generating Strong Revenue Results

We shared some recent case studies from developers finding success in the Amazon Appstore and a new report from BI Intelligence indicating the Amazon Appstore is “generating strong revenue results”.

Tuesday, April 22nd

Building for the next Generation of Gamers with Fire TV

We covered how the Amazon Fire TV now offers you the opportunity, and access to an entirely new generation of kids growing up as gamers. While traditional console game development is still out of reach for most, the Fire TV enables developers to target the casual gaming audience right now. It’s also an opportunity to be one of the first TV-based games that kids play.

Thursday, April 24th

Soundtracker Increases Average Session Length by 400% in the Last 6 Months in the Amazon Appstore

We chatted with South Ventures USA about their app Soundtracker and the success they have seen in the Amazon Appstore.  Soundtracker allows music to connect people by making it easy to discover and play music in real time with friends and anyone nearby. By leveraging the Amazon’s Mobile Apps APIs the team saw increases in both monetization and average session lengths within their app.

Friday, April 25th

Does Crowd Sourcing Really Work: An Interview with Starr Long

We talked with Starr Long, executive producer of the upcoming Shroud of the Avatar, around Crowd Sourcing. Are crowd funding and crowd sourcing really that effective and what’s the catch? Starr elaborates on the different criteria and the processes that he frequently uses, in order to make crowd sourcing successful.

Monday, April 14th

Streamlining the Web App Submission Process in 4 Easy Steps

We announced that developers can publish their web apps to the Amazon Appstore without a manifest.  As we continue to streamline the web app submission process our goal is to make submitting hosted web apps just as easy as submitting Android ones.

Tuesday, April 15th

No More Passwords for Apps using Login with Amazon on Kindle Fire

We announced mobile apps and games that use Login with Amazon on newer Kindle Fire devices will no longer need to ask Amazon customers to sign in each time the app is run.

The first time your app is run Login with Amazon will automatically use the account registered to the customer’s Kindle Fire device.  They will then simply need to consent to share their information once for each of your apps to be automatically signed in.

Wednesday, April 16th

Build Higher Performance Cordova-Based FireOS Apps by Implementing Amazon WebView Support

We showed how to enable Amazon WebView (AWV) support for Cordova to help you build higher performance apps and get access to accelerated hardware on Kindle Fire devices.

Thursday, April 17^th

Tips for Getting Your Android Apps Looking Good on Amazon Fire TV

Looking to get your Amazon App or Game on the new Amazon Fire TV?  We showed you how to get started and covered the top things you will need to know to be successful on TV.

This included understanding Amazon Fire TV video outputs, updated Android layouts, TV overscan and colors, navigation, notifications and handling web content.

Friday, April 18th

Tips Easter Eggs: Cook up Some (Cholesterol-Free) Fun

We took a look back at some hidden Easter eggs developers have left to find and announced an Easter egg Amazon Coins rewards promotion for the Amazon Appstore.

Thursday, April 10th

10 Tips for Remote and Controller

We shared 10 Tips for adding remote and game controller support to your Amazon Fire TV games.

One of the most exciting prospects of publishing your game on Amazon Fire TV is that you can run Android games directly on the TV. If you are already building games for Android, you can use the same codebase you currently have, and make that game playable on Amazon Fire TV.

Thursday, April 10th

Here is How Thousands of Apps Are Receiving a Guaranteed $1.50 Banner CPM

Since March 1^st, we have been guaranteeing developers with qualifying apps a $1.50 banner CPM for serving mobile ads through the Amazon Mobile Ad Network.  We shared this week some feedback from developers as well as steps you can take to qualify your own apps for promotion.

Friday, April 11th

More Player Engagement Potential: GameCircle Now Rewards Player Experience across Games

We announced new features to the GameCircle player experience:  (1) expanded player profiles with cross-game experience points, called XP, which allow players to track and share their total play time and (2) GameCircle-created achievements across multiple games, called Badges, which enhance players’ overall GameCircle Profile. 

Players will enjoy these features as they offer new reasons to revisit favorites as well as incentives to try new games.

Friday, April 11^th

Support Amazon Fire TV and Get Extra Appstore Developer Select Program Benefits: 500K Amazon Coins and Enhanced Merchandising

With the announcement of Amazon Fire TV, we have expanded the benefits offered as part of the Appstore Developer Select (ADS) program to increase visibility of apps on Fire TV.  In addition to 500k free mobile ad impressions, enhanced merchandising, Amazon Coins incentives for your customers, and AWS credits (all standard with ADS), qualifying apps that are also compatible with Amazon Fire TV and its hardware controllers will also receive:

• Enhanced On-Device Merchandising: Qualifying apps will have the opportunity to be merchandised via a dedicated category placement on the Amazon Fire TV Appstore home page.
• 500K Amazon Coins Offer per Qualifying App: Amazon will offer 500,000 Amazon Coins ($5,000 value) for each of your qualifying paid apps or apps with in-app purchasing that are compatible with Amazon Fire TV and one of its Amazon hardware controllers (up to 3 apps per developer). You can create campaigns via the Promotions Console to give these Coins away to consumers purchasing any of your paid apps or in-app items.

Tuesday, April 1st

Get User Feedback Data to Improve Your Apps

We announced that developers with a registered Amazon account can get free access to the PreApps User Feedback program which includes the ability to post your free app, receive customer feedback, access to beta testers, see the number of users asking to be notified when your app goes live and access to PreApps App Analytics.  We’ll be sending a code to all registered developers so keep an eye out for it in your inbox and let us know what you think.
 

Wednesday, April 2nd

Put Your Apps and Games on More Screens with Amazon Fire TV

We announced Amazon Fire TV, a new device that makes it easy for users to stream movies, TV shows, and music as well as download apps and play games right on the HDTVs they already own.

For developers, Fire TV can help you increase your customer base by putting your app in the living room, in front of people who enjoy entertainment and may not have seen your apps before. To promote rich user experiences, Fire TV enables full-featured game controllers, Dolby Digital Plus Certified surround sound and more. Android developers will find that developing for Fire TV is familiar, and optimizing their apps for the new controllers and TV display will not require learning a new language or new frameworks. 

Find out how to get your Android Apps and Games onto Amazon Fire TV today!

Friday, April 4th

Pick the Date and Time: Launching Apps on your Schedule in the Amazon Appstore

We announced a new ability to specify the date and time you would like your app to go live on the Amazon Appstore.
 

This gives you the ability to coordinate your app release on Amazon with releases on other stores and in conjunction with any press or social media launch events you may wish to plan.

Monday, March 24th

DotEmu Proves Premium Pricing Pays Off

We showed that premium pricing can still work!  DotEmu now has several classic games on the Amazon Appstore generating revenue and has seamlessly integrated Amazon’s GameCircle API.

Wednesday, March 26th

DJit Finds Amazon Appstore Customers Bring Higher Average Revenue and Longer Session Lengths

We discussed how DJiT’s Amazon Appstore version of eDjing is seeing higher average revenue and longer session lengths than other platforms.

“The Average Revenue Per Download (ARPD) on Amazon is actually higher than on Android.” – Jean-Baptiste, CEO 
 

Thursday, March 27th

Top 4 Things That Surprised Developers at GDC about AB Testing

We talked about Amazon A/B Testing at GDC 2014 and some top developer questions.