Amazon's always worked hard to make sure it's in the digital goods
business as well as its obviously successful physical one, but this
might be one of its boldest steps yet: another app store for Android. We heard the rumor a couple weeks ago through TechCrunch, and The Wall Street Journal
is now claiming to have proof, including an Amazon document explaining
some of the terms to the developers. It's apparently still unclear when
the store will be launched or even what it'll be called, and since so
far it seems like Amazon is mainly talking to developers about this
behind closed doors, some of the specifics might still be in the air.
According to the WSJ, Amazon stipulates an app can't be sold
for less anywhere else (which was hinted at in the earlier leak), and
there's a stranger requirement that the app can't be on offer anywhere
else for more than two weeks before it's given to Amazon. We're
guessing that's an Android only stipulation -- or else a bit of a high
barrier for iOS ports -- but that just brings up more to worry about:
is Amazon building a store just a first in an onslaught? And is this
indeed part of an Android tablet launch for Amazon?
