Today, Amazon announced the launch of it's own app store on the Android platform. It is launching with 3,800 applications and I can only imagine it will add to that in time. There are few things which I find to be truly brilliant about this move by Amazon.
Firstly, it is utilizing the distribution and experience of the Android platform as a base to launch off. Given that Android is now the leading OS in the US and is gaining rapid traction worldwide, Amazon instantly became accessible by millions of people (A good start for a new appstore).
Secondly, Amazon is moving into a space that leverages one of it's key strengths... e-commerce. Having already established itself as arguably the greatest online retailer in the world, the Amazon brand will pull some serious weight in this new venture.
What I like most about this new move is that Amazon has added yet another tool to its platform strategy. In a recent blog post, Simon Mainwaring captured some insights from SXSW about how ad agencies should think like software companies. Part of thinking that way involved developing platforms. What Amazon has done is a perfect example. The appstore has allowed Amazon to offer yet another platform to not only its users but also its contributors (in this case developers, but in other cases authors and manufacturers).
Amazon will soon become the go to platform for almost anything online, I am sure of it. Next step: Build a more robust tablet and offer seed it to Amazon Prime members.
