Kindle Development Kit for Active Content beta
Business Wire - Amazon Announces Kindle Development Kit - Software Developers Can Now Build Active Content for Kindle - January 21, 2010 12:00 AM Eastern Time
It's about time. First app I'd love to see: folders.
It seems like Amazon will be creating that one first. The revenue incentive and model for Kindle Apps is interesting - free, one time and subscription. The 100mb over the air limit as well as the "no voip" restrictions make for an interesting upcoming interaction between developer, reader and Amazon. A little bit of pruning by Amazon should ensure some standards a la Apple's App Store and be very different from the open Android Market.
Social apps for readers will be really interesting - recommendations, what your friends are reading now, with monetized buy now links? Nice.
"User revenue will be split 70% to the developer and 30% to Amazon net of delivery fees of $0.15 / MB." means that developers will have to eat the $0.15/MB transfer of the app, but can set pricing for the app however they want, including free (see below).
Revenue Share
User revenue will be split 70% to the developer and 30% to Amazon net of delivery fees of $0.15 / MB. Remember that unlike smart phones, the Kindle user does not pay a monthly wireless fee or enter into an annual wireless contract. Kindle active content must be priced to cover the costs of downloads and on-going usage.
Pricing Options
Active content will be available to customers in the Kindle Store later this year. Your active content can be priced three ways:
- Free - Active content applications that are smaller than 1MB and use less than 100KB/user/month of wireless data may be offered at no charge to customers. Amazon will pay the wireless costs associated with delivery and maintenance.
- One-time Purchase - Customers will be charged once when purchasing active content. Content must have nominal (less than 100KB/user/month) ongoing wireless usage.
- Monthly Subscription - Customers will be charged once per month for active content.
Active content applications have an upper size limit of 100MB. Applications larger than 10MB will not be delivered wirelessly but can be downloaded from the Kindle Store to a computer and transferred to the user's Kindle via USB.
Developer Guidelines
Voice over IP functionality, advertising, offensive materials, collection of customer information without express customer knowledge and consent, or usage of the Amazon or Kindle brand in any way are not allowed. In addition, active content must meet all Amazon technical requirements, not be a generic reader, and not contain malicious code.
We will work to refine the above guidelines throughout the beta.