Kindle Invades International Markets

Smartphone or no smartphone, Amazon Inc. is obviously determined to increase its presence on the mobile technology market worldwide. Even though the retailer has not yet announced plans on launching its own smartphone, it is doing its best at making its current mobile products available for more consumers. Yesterday, the company informed that it will open its Appstore in nearly 200 countries and release Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9 for pre-order in more than 170 countries.

Although Amazon has not shared any sales numbers publicly, in a press releases the retailer states that Kindle Fire HD is its most popular product worldwide. The two tablet PCs have the potential of becoming market leaders thanks to their affordable price and high quality performance and features. Kindle Fire HD has a 7-inch screen with an impressive resolution of 1280×800 pixels. Kindle Fire HD 8.9”, on the other hand, has a display resolution of 1920×1200 pixels.

The international pre-orders of Amazon’s two Kindle tablets will start at June 13th. The devices will come at prices of $214 for the 7-inched edition and $284 for the 8.9-inched Fire HD. Up to now the two products were offered only in the US, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK.

Amazon’s Appstore will too make an even bigger expansion and it will open in almost 200 countries. According Amazon’s Vice President of Apps and Games Mike George, this will enable Kindle Fire users to enjoy all the advantages of the retailer’s Appstore.

To mark its Appstore expansion, Amazon will offer two of its most popular mobile applications for free. “Fruit Ninja” and “Cut the Rope: Experiments” will be available for free download on May 23 and 24, respectively.

By opening its Appstore in more countries, Amazon will definitely attract more developers on its side. In fact, the company has already offered them additional flexibility by introducing a number of features and services like Amazon Coins, subscriptions and in-app payments.

To this date, Amazon’s Appstore was opened in only seven countries – Germany, China, the UK, Japan, Italy, France and Spain.

It is more than logical for Amazon to make these two expansions at the same time. After all, Amazon’s applications are exclusively developed for Kindle tablets.

Presently, the online retailer is one of the main competitors of Google on the mobile technology market. However, Amazon has one big advantage which should not be underestimated. The company does not focus only on applications. It also offers over 300,000 book titles on its Kindle Store.