Amazon Launches Google Android Appstore

One of the first stories TalkinCloud ran in 2011 covered the uncertainty around the Amazon Appstore, a developer marketplace designed to compete directly with the Google Android Market on its home turf by carefully cultivating its selection. Well, now we’re finally poised to get some answers, as the Amazon Appstore opens for business. It’s definitely a consumer play for right now, but I have a hunch it could mean something more to enterprise smartphone and tablet app developers.

The biggest feature Amazon is touting with this launch is “Test Drive,” which simulates an Android environment in your browser and runs a demo version of the app. If you like it, just click “buy” and the app is sent over-the-air to your phone. And the Amazon recommendation engine will be going full-blast to help point users at apps they’ll find useful or entertaining.

Now, imagine if this approach were applied to an enterprise app store: a vendor like LogMeIn or Spiceworks could show off their smartphone offerings in the browser, showing MSPs and customers exactly what they were getting with a URL? It would almost be like a CloudShare-meets-smartphones situation.

Likely? Maybe not, especially since there are still questions about the potential profitability of the platform. But since Amazon is augmenting their so-called Appstore by enlisting the power of the browser, it doesn’t seem crazy to me to imagine Amazon enabling administrators to deploy a branded portal just for enterprise smartphone users to download productivity apps — and only productivity apps. And who knows, maybe service providers will be able to launch their own.

Needless to say, Google’s not exactly happy with this move. So stay tuned to TalkinCloud for updates.

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