I’ve made no secret of the fact that I mostly don’t care about the Android market — I’m a Mac zealot and iOS fanboi (but one of the more pleasant fanbois). But I decided I’d publish for Amazon’s Kindle Fire because it’s just one device — and was selling more copies than most (all?) other Android tablets combined.
It was very easy to create a Kindle Fire version using Corona SDK (much easier, in fact, than creating a build for an iOS device) and after filling out all the description fields, uploading screenshots, etc., to the Amazon App Store I settled back to count the days until it was approved.
A couple days later it was kicked back saying it had failed a test on an LG smartphone.
Okay, my fault, I hadn’t specified that it was for the Kindle Fire. So I changed the build.settings to specify it was for large screen devices only, uploaded the new binary, and then left a note for the reviewer telling them the app was for the Kindle Fire only.
A few days pass and today it was kicked back again, this time for failing a test on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.2 Android. WTF?
So I sent Amazon a nasty-gram (but still fairly polite) telling them it was ONLY for the Kindle Fire, that I didn’t care about the Android market in general. And I received this reply:
On Dec 8, 2011, at 3:01 PM, Amazon Appstore Account Team wrote:
Hi Jay,
Thank you for your assistance in ensuring your apps are compatible with Kindle Fire. As a general rule, we ask that you modify your existing app binary to be compatible with Kindle Fire rather than create a distinct version of your app for Kindle Fire. Our goals are to maintain a unified discovery experience for your app within the Amazon Appstore and to ensure that customers who purchase your app on Kindle Fire will be able to enjoy it on other Android devices registered to their Amazon.com accounts.
If your app does not require permissions that are not supported by the Kindle Fire, and it doesn’t appear this app does, it is possible to optimize for all 7″ tablets. This would allow the app to be available on a broader scale, and include Kindle Fire customers.
Best regards,
L. M.
Amazon Appstore Account Team
This was such a disappointing reply. My last email to them said this:
I’m an indie developer and as such I don’t have an unlimited budget to buy one of every Android tablet to test with.
That’s why I decided to target Kindle Fire only — one device for testing, no problem.
I do not care about the broader Android market — let them eat cake. Putting my apps on iOS, Nook, and Kindle Fire was all I wanted.
I guess I’ll just stick to the first two until you guys decide who you are — Amazon or Android.
Jay
I don’t expect to hear back from them and at some point I’ll probably revisit the idea of making my apps and games available for (at least some of) the Android market. But for now I’ll poke at the Nook and spend most of my time targeting iOS.
PS – To the Android fans who read the “let them eat cake” phrase and are gathering pitchforks — it was just a bit of hyperbole to allow me to let off some steam. 🙂
I tend to agree…I submitted one of our apps for the Fire and had similar issues….I tell you, when it’s harder to get your app on the Amazon store than it is to get it in the Apple App Store, there are issues! 🙂
I was thinking about building an Amazon Fire version of
Adam’s Amazing Dream but after reading your article, it
looks like I’ll pass.
Thx for the info.
p
I also submitted our children’s book app to Amazon, planning on targeting on the Fire, as well. I was surprised (pleasantly?) to see that the app was approved for the general Android marketplace relatively quickly. Huzzah!
…but, I was taken slightly aback when I received the email that said apps were tested for the Fire separately from the general marketplace. OK, I’ll wait.
Several weeks later I got the email back that said…
“Families Come in Many Different Shapes, Sizes, and Colors exhibits consistent, reproducible instances of hard-locking the device, force closing, or crashing when tested for compatibility on Kindle Fire.”
Well, needless to say, without an actual device to test on, I can’t see the app hard-locking, force closing or crashing the Fire. Beyond that, even if I had a device, without any more information than that, I don’t see how I could reproduce the issues.
Net result, no Fire for me, until I get a device. Although the cryptic message seems like Amazon took a page straight out of the Apple playbook, so maybe they are on to something.