Amazon.com is expanding its Appstore to the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, with plans to take the distribution platform to other international markets soon, the company announced today. It also said that it plans to change the way it pays mobile app developers.
Following its launch of in-app purchasing in April, the company said beginning July 1 that developers will earn 70 percent of list price on each paid app sale. The company’s prior terms allowed developers to earn either 70 percent of the app’s sales price or 20 percent of list price — whichever was greater.
The new payouts are similar to Apple’s terms, which also pays developers 70 percent on each app sale. In addition to the new payout structure, the company said that it has created a more flexibility in how apps are submitted to the store. Full terms can be seen here.
“Developers can now better control which apps they will make available to Amazon customers, and when,” the company said.
The planned expansion in Europe was first reported by Tricia Duryee at All Things D who wondered if the move might signal that Amazon.com was prepping to roll out its Kindle Fire device internationally. No word yet on that.
The move into international markets should help Amazon expand its reach at a critical time, and the press releases is loaded with no fewer than five app developers — from AllRecipes.com to EA to Rovi0 — discussing the importance of international distribution.
“We’re excited to open the door to even more opportunity by expanding app sales outside the U.S. We see tremendous potential for current developers in our distribution program to grow with the international expansion,” said Jim Adkins, Vice President of the Amazon Appstore, in a statement.
Amazon isn’t saying how many apps it now distributes, noting only that it has grown to “tens of thousands of apps and games in just one year.”
