It's too early for any official figures from the Amazon Appstore for Android, which launched on March 22, but Aaron Rubenson, Amazon's category leader for mobile services is certainly upbeat.

"We're very happy and excited the Appstore's launched," he told PocketGamer.biz. "The reaction from developers and consumers has been very positive."

And with good reason. Android developers are desperate for a marketplace in which to distribute paid content, while consumers (those in the US at least), have been enjoying the Paid App for Free Every Day content. That's included games such as Angry Birds Rio, World Series Of Poker: Hold'em Legend and Doodle Jump.

Free for all

More than just being a great promotion message to get people into the store, Rubenson points out it's good business for developers too.

"It's high profile in terms of exposure. We're helping with discovery and it's important in terms of titles appearing on bestseller lists and featuring in our recommendation system," he explains.

In addition, because Amazon guarantees developers a minimum 20 percent of their app's list price, even when given away, each download of 99c game that's made free for the day by Amazon sees the developer getting 20c.

"The downstream advantages are real. It's a strong value proposition," Rubenson says.

Next steps

Moving on from the launch, the plan for Amazon is to build out its content library beyond the 3,800 apps and games initially available.

"We think our selection is strong but we want the broadest possible selection of apps and games," Rubenson comments. "Our goal is to provide a great experience for customers and developers so we can get the right products in front of the right customers."

Underlying this is Amazon's commitment to quality. That's one of the reason it has a testing and curation process for apps. Rubenson says most content takes a week or less to pass through submission.

"Developers have been fantastic about providing high quality products and we hope any who have been waiting for the Appstore to launch will now get onboard," he explains.

Loving the robot

And, beyond the Appstore itself, Rubenson says Android is an important product for the company.

"Amazon is big supporter of Android. We sell a lot of Android phones, devices and tablets," he points out; something that will provide organic growth for the Appstore. Similarly, the way in which the Appstore for Android is fully integrated within the main Amazon website in terms of search, demonstrates this wider commitment to educate all Amazon shoppers.

Still, for those of us not in the US, there's one key question we need answered.

"Sorry. I can't comment on when we'll be launching the Appstore in other countries," Rubenson ends.

Not too long, we hope.