Amazon Prime for mobile apps and games? Unlocked may be just that
Leaked presentation shows that Amazon has even bigger plans for mobile freebies
Every so often, Amazon likes to hand out giant bundles of free mobile and tablet apps and games (there’s one right now!), which not only make the company look generous and great, but also get people to use its Appstore. What’s next? Maybe a constant stream of it.
That’s according to a leaked presentation that TechCrunch obtained for Amazon Unlocked, a seemingly in-the-works service that’ll provide users free apps and games, not to mention free access to the in-app purchases found within.
From the images shown, it appears that the service works for Amazon apps available via the sideloaded Amazon Appstore on Android, not just Amazon’s own devices. We see Sega’s free-to-play Sonic Dash promoted as “including 100% off in-app purchasing,” along with other apps offering similar perks.
Unfortunately, there are no details yet on how the service functions from a business and marketing perspective. Will it be bundled in with Amazon Prime, the company’s monthly service that comprises shipping discounts and access to stockpiles of other digital content? Or will it be an add-on service, or even a standalone option? Could something like this be used to push the next Fire Phone, perhaps?
Beyond the technical and business side of things here, there are other considerations – like the fact that providing unlimited access to in-app purchases will immediately kill the competitive online and leaderboard elements of any enabled game (and quite likely the fun, too). And if free-to-play offerings aren’t already killing the value of premium apps, how about an entire service of them without limitations?
Heady subjects, no doubt, but we’re intrigued all the same to see how Amazon pulls this one off. No word yet on a launch timeframe, but we’ll let you know if we hear anything.
[Source: TechCrunch]
Read More › Amazon Kindle Voyage review
Andrew Hayward
Freelance Writer 
