SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ: AMZN) – Amazon today launched web app support in the Mobile App Distribution Program. Developers can now submit URLs for their HTML5 web apps and mobile websites and have Amazon offer that content to millions of Kindle Fire and Amazon Appstore customers in the same, convenient way as native apps. Developers can submit and distribute mobile web content without using third party software or doing any native app development, and they can take advantage of Amazon’s In-App Purchasing API for JavaScript, which provides them the option to build sales of digital goods into their apps. Customers can find great new web apps in the Amazon Appstore today, including Dream Pet Link from Spil Games, and IGN Video Game Reviews, News & Previews from IGN Entertainment. Developers can get started with the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Program by visiting https://developer.amazon.com/appstore.
Web developers and content publishers have historically faced numerous challenges when building, optimizing and distributing web apps for mobile devices. Previously, third party software was needed to convert mobile web content to native apps to participate in an appstore, and on-device debugging was a challenging and necessary prerequisite for achieving strong performance on a large variety of web runtimes. Amazon is removing these roadblocks by providing the following benefits:
- Easy distribution through the Amazon Appstore: Developers submit URLs and metadata for their HTML5 web apps and mobile websites directly to the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Portal. Amazon distributes the mobile web content through the Amazon Appstore to millions of Amazon customers using Kindle Fire and Android devices in nearly 200 countries.
- Strong web app performance on Kindle Fire: Developers benefit from native-like experiences on Kindle Fire with a new, faster web runtime, based on the open-source Chromium project. The runtime supports the latest HTML5 features and includes standards-based extensions enabling developers to build a web app once and deploy it across multiple platforms without requiring platform specific changes. In addition, the new runtime includes web developer tools enabling on-device debugging on Kindle Fire.
- Great ways to make money: Amazon’s proven In-App Purchasing API is now available for JavaScript. This provides web developers the ability to easily build sales of digital goods such as subscriptions, level upgrades, and digital currencies into their web apps, thereby enabling a friction-free checkout experience.
“We’ve heard from developers that making their web apps available for mobile devices is hard because many times it means rewriting their app, which takes extra time and often requires third party tools,” said Mike George, Vice President of Amazon Appstore, Games and Cloud Drive. “By launching support for HTML5 web apps in the Mobile App Distribution Program, we’re giving web developers the tools they need and all the benefits that native apps already enjoy in the Amazon Appstore and on Kindle Fire. This opens up new possibilities—starting with faster discovery, access to tools for increased monetization, and the ability to reach new customers for greater exposure.”
TreSensa is a game development/distribution company that optimizes games for the mobile web. “Web apps represent one of the largest growth sectors for games, so we are thrilled to see Amazon innovating in this space by adding web apps to the Amazon Appstore,” said Rob Grossberg, CEO of TreSensa. “Now we are able to offer all our games to millions of Amazon customers worldwide. What’s more, we can implement frictionless game monetization by leveraging Amazon’s updated In App-Purchasing API for JavaScript. Web app support in the Amazon Appstore is a literal game-changer for both consumers and TreSensa.”
Spil Games is a games publisher of online and social games. “Amazon’s new web app initiative has opened up a brand new avenue for us to reach customers through the Amazon Appstore,” said Erik Goossens, CEO of Spil Games. “With the addition of web apps to the Mobile App Distribution Program, we are able to offer our games to millions of customers worldwide using the same discovery and launch experience that native Android apps enjoy.”
Scirra is a popular HTML5 game framework. “We believe HTML5 is the software platform of the future,” said Ashley Gullen, Founder of Scirra. “We're really excited that Amazon supports HTML5 and has taken the innovative and valuable step of using state-of-the-art browser technology to allow development of web apps that are listed alongside traditional "native" apps. It also opens the door to sophisticated HTML5-powered engines like Construct 2, and we're proud to be launching immediate support today."
IGN Entertainment is a leading provider of game reviews, news and videos. “Our goal is to make IGN available on all screens where people play or read about games, so we’re delighted to be launching an app on Kindle Fire,” said Todd Northcutt, VP of Product at IGN Entertainment. “Amazon’s innovative approach made it an easy decision to bring IGN to the Amazon Appstore with minimal time and development effort on our part. We’re very excited to stand beside Amazon as they make the mobile app ecosystem more accessible to millions of content publishers worldwide.”
Today’s launch of web app support in the Amazon Appstore is the latest offering in an array of services that make Amazon the most complete end-to-end ecosystem for developers building, monetizing and marketing their apps and games. These capabilities include:
- The ability for app developers to use Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) technology platform for their infrastructure needs. Building blocks such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and Amazon DynamoDB allow developers to focus on what differentiates their app rather than the undifferentiated heavy lifting of infrastructure.
- GameCircle, which includes capabilities like Achievements, Leaderboards, Friends and Whispersync for syncing games across devices, and leads to better engagement with games.
- Login with Amazon, which allows developers to easily reduce sign-in friction for their customers, leading to higher engagement and order conversion.
- In-App Purchasing on Kindle Fire, Mac, PC and web-based games. This enables developers to offer virtual items in their apps and games while allowing their end users to simply use their Amazon accounts to make the purchase.
- A/B Testing, which helps developers improve app functionality with the ability to simultaneously test two different in-app experiences to determine which is more successful prior to launching to a broad audience.
- Game Connect, which lets developers list their virtual goods for sale on Amazon, increasing discoverability of their games and making the purchase of virtual goods as easy and convenient as possible for customers, leading to increased monetization for developers.
- Amazon Appstore submission for distribution to nearly 200 countries globally enables developers to reach millions more of Amazon customers worldwide.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle Paperwhite is the most-advanced e-reader ever constructed with 62% more pixels and 25% increased contrast, a patented built-in front light for reading in all lighting conditions, extra-long battery life, and a thin and light design. The new latest generation Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, now features new, improved fonts and faster page turns. Kindle Fire HD features a stunning custom high-definition display, exclusive Dolby audio with dual stereo speakers, high-end, laptop-grade Wi-Fi with dual-band support, dual-antennas and MIMO for faster streaming and downloads, enough storage for HD content, and the latest generation processor and graphics engine—and it is available in two display sizes—7” and 8.9”. The large-screen Kindle Fire HD is also available with 4G wireless, and comes with a groundbreaking $49.99 introductory 4G LTE data package. The all-new Kindle Fire features a 20% faster processor, 40% faster performance, twice the memory, and longer battery life.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, www.amazon.es, www.amazon.com.br and www.amazon.in. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment and data center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
