Amazon are hoping that a new Amazon Underground Android mobile shopping app will hook customers into becoming more loyal by offering totally free apps. That’s apps which cost nothing and thousands of pounds worth of apps, games and in-app items that really are free.
There’s nothing more frustrating than finding yourself bored on a train journey, downloading an enticing game and then finding after the first couple of levels it’s not so much a free game as a free trial. To continue playing you’ll have to make a purchase and that’s what Amazon say they’ll change.
Amazon say that they’ve made this possible by working with app developers on a new business model where Amazon will pay the developer based on a per-minute played basis in exchange for no in-app fees. Amazon say “To be clear, we’re the ones picking up those per minute charges so for you it’s simply free. Just look for apps and games marked with an “Actually Free” banner“.
Of course there is one downside which I’m not a fan of and wrote about before – unless you have an Amazon Android device (Fire Tablet), you’ll need to lower your security on your Android device in order to download Amazon Underground or any apps through Underground.
One might suspect that Amazon are offering freebies as not enough people have downloaded previous versions of the Amazon app, in which case you can’t help but admire their marketing – “Underground” itself is a suitably subversive name for the app with a secretive looking landing page. It’s almost as if they want you to feel naughty as you stick two fingers up to Google and install apps from “untrusted” sources.
Ultimately whatever free apps or free in-app purchases Amazon offer, there’s no doubt that they’re calling Underground a “Shopping” app. Amazon say that over time they’ll “continue to invent add more benefits to Underground, but in the mean time enjoy some actually free apps and games“.
