Amazon essentially renders its own Appstore obsolete

Since its creation, the Amazon Appstore stood apart, banned from being offered in the official store for Android apps, Google Play, until now… sort of. When Amazon recently updated its main Android app, it got a new “Apps & Games” department that duplicates the content found in the standalone Appstore app, effectively making it both unnecessary and obsolete.

Until recently, if you wanted to install an application from Amazon’s own Appstore onto your Android device, you would have to install the Amazon Appstore app separately. And this is a bit of a hassle, since you can’t exactly just download the app from Google Play. But last month, Amazon quietly rolled out a new feature within its main Amazon application on Android which now includes a fully-functional Appstore that’s accessible directly through the Amazon app’s “Shop by Department” section. There, right at the top of the list of Departments, is a new category called “Apps & Games.” And this isn’t just a list of apps that Amazon has for sale elsewhere in its Appstore app – it’s actually a complete app store in and of itself, tucked away right within the main Amazon application.