Amazon Launches New Virtual Currency Amazon Coins

Online retail giant Amazon has today announced the launch of a new virtual currency called Amazon Coins which it has created for purchasing apps, games, and in-app items on their Kindle Fire tablet.

Amazon Coins will launch in the US during May 2013 and will provide Kindle Fire owners a new way to purchase apps and in-app items, will be awarded only to US customers at launch.

Amazon account holders will only be able to spend their Amazon Coins on apps and games that are available for sale on the Kindle Fire tablet.

“Amazon Coins is an easy way for Kindle Fire customers to spend money on developers’ apps in the Amazon Appstore, offering app and game developers another substantial opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increase monetization even further” explains Amazon.

Amazon will give customers tens of millions of dollars’ worth of Amazon Coins to use on developers’ apps in the Amazon Appstore—apps and games must be submitted and approved by April 25 to be ready when Amazon Coins arrive in customers’ accounts

Amazon Coins is the latest in a series of new features and services for developers that make Amazon the most complete end-to-end ecosystem for building, monetizing and marketing their apps and games. Recent announcements include:

• In-App Purchasing for Mac, PC and web-based games, enabling developers to let customers use their Amazon accounts to purchase virtual goods and currencies from games on those platforms
• Game Circle, which includes capabilities like Achievements, Leaderboards, Friends, and Whispersync for syncing games across devices, and leads to better engagement with games
• Game Connect, which lets developers marry the ease and security of shopping on Amazon with the convenience of having virtual goods delivered directly to customers’ game accounts
• A/B Testing, a service that helps developers improve app functionality, retain customers and increase monetization
• Adobe AIR Native Extensions, which makes it simple for Adobe Flash developers to add In-App Purchasing and Game Circle features to their apps and games
• Amazon Mobile App SDK Eclipse Plugin (beta) allows developers to rapidly and reliably integrate Amazon APIs into their Android projects, speeding up development and cutting down on project setup time”

To learn more, visit the Amazon Coins FAQ on the Mobile App Distribution Portal.

Source: Amazon

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