Kindle Fire’s Curated But Limited Apps Are Its Strength

There’s been some concern that the Kindle Fire would fall short on apps. It will not have the Android Marketplace installed (or installable). Rather it will rely on Amazon’s Appstore and while that initially gave me cause for concern, I think in balance it’s actually a benefit for the Fire. What changed? Amazon has come forward a bit more on what to expect. The surprise is that Amazon will let you install apps that are direct competitors to Amazon’s own product line, namely Netflix will be available as well as Rhapsody and Pandora, which are each competing with Amazon’s own line. “Plus, all apps are Amazon-tested on Kindle Fire for the best experience possible, customers can get a great "paid" app for free every day, and once you’ve downloaded an app from the Amazon Appstore, it’s available on Kindle Fire as well as your other Android-based devices.” So that’s an Android marketplace without the spyware and piracy. Nice.

EA, Zynga and Gameloft are all on board and that also means you will not be seeing their pirated apps available for the Fire. I know people like free apps but pirated apps are bad across the board. They’re moving Android from a ‘free’ market to an iOS type market where people are trained from day one to pay for apps. Of course, the developer can choose to create free apps but it’s nice to have a viable market where people will pay for good apps.

All in, I’m actually impressed. Less crap, more curating, no piracy. I’ll exchange quantity to quality every day of the week.