Amazon Makes Pitch to App Developers Ahead of Rumored Smartphone Launch

Amazon may not have a new smartphone yet, but it already seems to be making a not-so-subtle pitch for developers to build apps for one.

The ecommerce giant announced Monday that its Appstore for Android devices and the Kindle Fire now has more than 240,000 apps, nearly triple the number one year earlier. That still makes the Amazon app ecosystem significantly smaller than Apple or Google, both of which now have more than one million apps across their respective devices, but the growing number of apps is only part of the pitch.

“Developers tell us that they experience improved reach, greater monetization, and, oftentimes, higher revenue when they have their apps and games in the Amazon Appstore,” Mike George, vice president of Amazon Appstore and Games, said in a statement Read more...