Doodle Jump Hits Amazon's Appstore

Earlier this week, Amazon launched the Amazon Appstore by giving away Angry Birds Rio for free (the #1 paid and top-grossing app on iOS). That promotion was in conjunction with an announcement that Amazon would giveaway one paid app for free each day. Today's free app should also be familiar: the 'insanely addictive' Doodle Jump (which, behind Angry Birds, may be the next biggest game on iOS).

Amazon is clearly moving into the application and Android space by distributing great, familiar titles in a way that fits with their brand / style: by winning on price.

Also worth noting: Angry Birds Rio is still available for free on the Appstore. When it first launched, it was marketed as expiring that day...

Amazon Appstore Launches with Free Angry Birds Rio

Today Amazon launched the Amazon Appstore for Android (more here and here). At this point, there are a slew of app stores (from your phone, computer, tablet, browser, television, alarm clock, etc. But this is Amazon... so it's worth paying attention because: 1. their scale and brand makes them a major player 2. they will do it in the Amazon way... technology, recommendations, price competition, etc

Did I mention price competition? Amazon launched behind Angry Birds Rio - giving the uber-popular game away... for free. It's the #1 selling and grossing application on the iPhone. On Amazon, it's free for today's launch. That's quite a promotion.

And it represents a larger pricing move: Amazon Appstore will give "a great premium app for free every day."

What mobile apps have been successful without a web component?

Continuing to post select Quora answers on my blog – you can view them here.

A few obvious themes and a couple apps associated with them:

- Gaming. Games make up the majority of the most successful paid applications. Examples: Angry Birds, Cut The Rope, Electronic Arts, etc. - Photos. There are numerous successful apps around photos - either as a network (Path (company), Instagram, etc) or around functionality (Hipstamatic, etc). They are improving a core utility around the device itself. Neither Path nor Instagram launched with web components. And Hipstamatic and others are entirely on the phone.

- Local & Device-Related Companies. Applications where location and/or the device are required components. Examples like FlightTrack, Uber (formerly UberCab), Shazam, etc.

- Messaging & Communication. Kik, Beluga, GroupMe, Tango, etc