amazonappstoreAmazon’s AppStore for Android is turning 3 this week, and the company kicked off its birthday celebration with a week-long sale for a number of popular applications on its digital storefront.

In addition, users who make in-app purchases in selected games will get back 50 percent of what they spend in Amazon Coins, the company’s proprietary digital currency.

With rumors of an Android-based Amazon smartphone continuing to float around, drawing more users onto the company’s app platform is key. While Google’s Play Store remains the go-to place for Android users looking to pick up new apps, smartphone makers have to license it and other apps like Gmail and Google Drive from the Mountain View-based company.

In the past, Google hasn’t taken kindly to companies heavily modifying Android and launching their own phones, so it looks like Amazon may be going it alone with its AppStore if they launch a phone. That means they need consumers and developers to buy into the AppStore as much as possible, so the company’s rumored phone doesn’t go the way of Microsoft’s mobile platform, which has been plagued by a lack of sought-after applications. While Microsoft has been working to improve the variety of apps available to users, its market share hasn’t improved much.

Amazon’s rumored set-top box is also expected run on Android.

Amazon has been making ongoing efforts to improve its software storefront. The company launched Coins for Android users last month, after releasing it to Kindle Fire users in 2013. The digital currency gives users a new way to pay slightly less for apps, both through buying packages of Coins as well as earning them through special deals and in-app achievements. Last year, the company allowed developers of HTML5 apps to charge for their sale.

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