Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets don’t ship with access to the Google Play Store. Instead users can download apps and games from the Amazon Appstore — but you don’t need a Kindle Fire to use Amazon’s store. You can also download and install the Amazon Appstore on almost any Android device.
And there’s a good reason to do that this week: Amazon is giving users $5 to spend in the Appstore if they just install the store and download one app or game.
The deal runs from December 24th through the 28th, and the $5 credit counts toward future purchases. You can’t just install the Appstore, find a $5 app, and expect it to be free if it’s the first thing you download.
Amazon also offers a free app of the day, taking one app or game that normally costs money and offering it to users free of charge. This week the company is promising to offer even more free apps, as well as deep discounts on many apps.
There’s a bit of a catch though: If you download apps from the Amazon Appstore, they’ll only work as long as the store is still installed on your device and you’re logged into your Amazon account. Unfortunately, I’ve found the app has a habit of logging me out every week or two, and that frustrated me enough that I went and paid full price in the Google Play Store for a few apps I’d previously gotten for free from Amazon.
You results may vary.
If you own a kindle and an android tablet, could you now install the app store on android and use the $5 to get the app on the kindle?
I’ve had the same logging out issue with Amazon App Store. Needless to say, it’s pissed me off to no end. For example: I bought Business Calendar (Calendar replacement) from the AAS. Sometimes I’ll get a reminder, and then when I tap on it for detail, it asks me to log into AAS before I can do so.
That is *exactly* the same problem that prompted me to leave the Appstore behind. I bought Business Calendar Pro from the Play Store instead.
FYI, it’s on sale at half price right now, so you can get it from the Play Store for $2.49 if you want to throw a little money at the problem to make it go away.
Never had the logging out issue with the Amazon App Store. I’ve had it for a couple of years now. The app itself is pretty laggy but the latest update seems to be more responsive. Of course, all the apps I use from Amazon are the free app of the day ones 🙂 .
I greenify the Amazon App Store and so far it’s never bothered me once since then!