Apparently, it's not just me who's bullish about the arrival of the Amazon Appstore for Android - even though it's still only available for residents of the US.
The arrival of the largest online western retailer, with over 130 million customers on its book, into the Android market, has been praised by game publishers too.
"Amazon is great at selling products and it will add a lot of value," said Gamevil's US head Kyu Lee, which has six games on the store.
"We're very excited about the Amazon Appstore for Android," echoed Namco Bandai Games America's executive producer, mobile, Jonathan Kromrey, which also has six games available.
"It's a perfect system to get mobile applications and games to the mass market," concluded Christopher Kassulke, CEO of HandyGames - 16 games available.
Are we there yet?
But, like impatient children, the Android community isn't completely satisfied. As well as rolling out the store to other countries - something Amazon is committed to but hasn't announced a timetable for - there are other features on the wishlist.
Alexey Sazonov, sales and marketing director of Russian publisher HeroCraft is keen to see the Appstore offer additional payment methods, for example.
"This would make sense in territories in which Amazon doesn't currently have a large presence with its online store," he points out.
It's a theme taken up by Namco Bandai's Jonathan Kromrey, who'd also like to see Amazon match Google's release of an official in-app purchase solution.
"We hope for frequent updates to meet the demand from our players, support for in-app purchases, and a system like Apple's Game Center, with real-time multiplayer server support," he says.
Building the open platform
For Gamevil's Kyu Lee, a bigger install base is key.
"We'd like to see the market expand with more clients pre-installed on devices," he adds.
But they're all agreed that as an addition to the open Android ecosystem, the Amazon Appstore will be a very positive thing for everyone.
"Amazon Appstore is important because it helps the Android ecosystem evolve," says Lee.
"The Android platform did not evolve due to Google's efforts alone, but due to the values that the carriers and manufacturers also placed on the table.
"The carriers provided their best marketing and services, and the manufacturers provided their best handsets. Amazon is great at selling products and it will add a lot of value."
Feature
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
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