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Amazon launches Android Appstore: Trial balloon ahead of a tablet?

Amazon launched its Appstore for Android and the effort may hint at a bigger strategy for tablets.
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

Amazon on Tuesday launched its Appstore for Android and the effort may hint at a bigger strategy for tablets.

For now, the focus is on Amazon's app launch, but a few analysts as well as Jason Perlow have argued that Amazon is likely to enter the tablet market. The argument is that Amazon can use Android, launch a tablet and then tie in its services such as streaming movies, MP3 sales, e-books and other

Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said:

It would be easy to call the game for Apple as the second inning is starting, but we won’t, because we see a market that’s ripe for disruption by Amazon in particular. Amazon could create a compelling Android- or Linux-based tablet offering easy access to Amazon’s storefront (including its forthcoming Android app store) and unique Amazon features like one-click purchasing, Amazon Prime service, and its recommendations engine.

Launching an Amazon Android store is an interesting trial balloon on the way to a broader strategy. The promise with Amazon's Appstore for Android is that the software is vetted. The store is launching with 3,800 apps and the major categories are well covered.

It's likely that other developers will take Amazon's store more seriously now that it has launched.

I haven't had a chance to take the store for a spin due to download issues. My Android device is set up to download the app, but it won't take when I go to the URL. Other folks such as James Kendrick haven't had any issues.

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