Why the Amazon App Store is better than the "Market"

[netposer]

This coming from a guy who has only been an Android user for 5 months...

First and one of the biggest: My app purchases are not tied to an email address but rather to my Amazon account. More on this below.

Second: I can actually use the web-based Amazon Appstore. Right now my Google Apps for Domains Email is not compatible with the Android Market web site so it's pretty much useless and there's NOTHING I CAN DO TO FIX IT. Google states they are transitioning my account and will let me know when it's done. I have no idea if that's going to happen in 1 hour or 1 year.

And back to the First issue. I can't change my email address or I lose all the apps I've purchased unless I contact each and every app developer. We all know how easy that is.

Third; If I have a problem with an app from Amazon I have recourse and a 10+ year relationship with Amazon; translation --> I can pick up the phone and call someone.

Fourth; I know how much I'm paying in US dollars and I'm paying Amazon.

I'm sure Amazon will begin to match every feature in the current Android Market as time goes by. And I'm confident I will purchase EVERY paid app from Amazon, from now on.

Right now Google does NO customer support for the Android Market and using Google Help will only go so far.

Although I am not sure how the Amazon vetting process is going to work out in the end, hopefully both app stores flourish so we have more choice.

I would be curious to hear other thoughts on this.

 

[Charisma#WN]

not very convincing

the app stores are more aptly described as roughly equal.

Neither identify apps that will work with XOOM/honeycomb which makes them both deficient since some phone apps will freeze a tablet.

your email problem is only yours and is rare.

the free paid app on Amazon is very nice.

my google account is just as convenient as my amazon prime account

both get downloads easily

neither search well

both return to the top of the list rather than return to where you were before which is absurd

my take is that it is a tie and both are weak in useful features

 

[RUSH]

They both are useful and useless depending on how you look at them.

 

[netposer]

your email problem is only yours and is rare.


my google account is just as convenient as my amazon prime account

It might be "rare" but it's infuriating that I can DO NOTHING about it.

And your google account is in no way as convenient as an Amazon account considering that if you change your email you lose all of your paid-for apps.

So in my case Google tells me to change my email address but that means I have to factory reset my phone and lose all my paid apps.

 

[jthom]

I was on my laptop earlier checking out the Amazon Appstore and clicked on a game (Wordsearch Unlimited Free). There's an Android emulator on there that lets you play the game before downloading it. Not sure how many other apps that's available for, but I thought that was really slick!

 

[nightshadex101]

Until the Amazon Appstore can be used everywhere and not only the US, it will fail.
Android is dominating in other parts of the world, specially where iPhones are not subsidized as in the US (U$S625 for the iPhone 4 vs U$S225 for the Motorola Defy here in Argentina, and that's with the more expensive monthly plan).
It's ridiculous that I can't even get free apps on the Amazon Appstore. Even when I had to take 15 minutes to sign-up and enter my credit card details.
And on the Android Market, you can see how much you're paying on your actual currency. You're paying Google Checkout, which is only other platform. I don't have any problem paying Google, but I don't trust Amazon at all, they're not very recognized here.
And my mail is <firstname><lastname>@gmail.com, I don't think I'll change it anywhere soon.

 

[reverepats]

AMAZON appstore is great....a free paid app everyday is great....swiftkey is today free app...i love it that its tied to my AMazon account

 

[bkrodgers]

One concern I have about this and any other alternate app store is that your purchase is tied to the store, not the app. Let's say that in a year, Amazon decides this hasn't worked out and throws in the towel. Now you can't reinstall your paid app, even if it's still available on the market. And you can't get updates.

For that matter, even if Amazon doesn't shut it down, a developer could just decide it isn't worth their time to update the app there. So it could be that the market version stays up to date, but the Amazon version you bought becomes stale. This is already happening even on launch day. I read about (and just confirmed for myself) Twidroyd, for example. It's only available as 4.3.0 on Amazon, but the market has 5.0.6. Interestingly, 4.3.0 doesn't even work!!! It's a version from prior to their problem with Twitter suspending their API key. I just tried it out and it's totally non-functional. Luckily it's a free app (and one I don't actually use), but if I bought an app from Amazon and found that the version on the Market was newer (either now or in the future after updates), I would be quite pissed at both Amazon and the developer.

I'm all excited about the "paid app for free" promo, but I'm very wary to purchase apps from the store until there's evidence it's going to gain traction with developers.

 

[dep]

My two gripes about the Amazon App Store is:

1) It doesn't sync your current installed apps in to it (like, say, AppBrain does).
2) Now I have to update the software I download in two different places. If I download an app through Amazon, I have to download that app's updates through the Amazon app, and the rest I have to update through the marketplace.

That makes this experience really fragmented to me.

I don't want to have to think "Ok which app store did I buy this in?"

dep

 

[kalel114]

I use the Amazon store solely for the free apps and buy my apps through the Android Market.

 

[davey11]

I find myself stopping there everyday..I like how amazon is us based...once had my cc comapny call for a charge in some european country..they thought it was a fraudelent charge. I forget what app it was.

 

[airbo]

Languages with android

 

[tbizzy1985]

Anyone else experiencing really long download times using Amazon appstore? My first download (angry birds seasons) is taking forever.

 

[brotherswing]

Amazon is slower than the market, even over wifi. That's not a deal breaker for me though, I can wait a minute or two longer. I agree the biggest problem is apps not reconciling with the Market. That would be very nice indeed.

 

[DenverRalphy]

My two gripes about the Amazon App Store is:

1) It doesn't sync your current installed apps in to it (like, say, AppBrain does).

Appbrain isn't an app store or market. It's simply a portal to the android market. If you're using appbrain, you're actually using the android market.

2) Now I have to update the software I download in two different places. If I download an app through Amazon, I have to download that app's updates through the Amazon app, and the rest I have to update through the marketplace.

That makes this experience really fragmented to me.

I don't want to have to think "Ok which app store did I buy this in?"

How can it get any more simple? Amazon's appstore notifies me instantly when there's an update for an app. Whereas the android market does the same; If anything, the android market is really slow to notify me of updates (and sometimes fails to do so at all). In this I give the advantage to Amazon's appstore.

 

[KiL]

Appstore for a week: uninstalled

I don't know if anyone else is having this problem, I haven't found anything online yet. I am running Android 2.2 on an HTC Desire and this appstore app ate my battery and caused my phone to get HOT during the 7 ish days I had it installed. It was almost too hot to touch. I removed the battery (cool to the touch) and the casing stayed blazing hot for quite a while (about 10 minutes). I really liked the application in and of itself, but dropping to a 4 hour standby battery life was unacceptable. After removing this app and only this app, my phone seems to run like normal. I will try a reinstall in a few days to double-check, but this seems to be the only thing causing this issue.

 

[lionsson]

I really like the idea of my primary account not being connected to my Android Market account. My reason is a have two children and I found some really cool educational apps, but having them use my device all afternoon need to come to an end soon. I have decided to purchase several Android tablet by Christmas and I'm really interested in something easy for the to carry like a 5 inch to 7 inch tablet, anyway having to buy the apps several times can get very expensive especially considering my track record for last year of over 50 apps that cost from 1 dollar to 29 dollars and multiply that several times and you get the picture.

Here is a link to a suggestion I posted in the Google support forum