Recently, Amazon declared its Android App Store as well as the Amazon Coins program will shut down by August 2025. Having spent nearly 10 years developing an app to compete in the marketplace and participate in the virtual currency business, this now brings that effort to a halt. This transformative process was explained by challenges in consumer habits and the company’s decision to concentrate on its strategic business segments.

Highlights:

• Amazon Appstore for Android will cease operations by August 2025.
• Amazon Coins, the virtual currency program, will also be discontinued.
• Existing app purchases will remain accessible until the shutdown date.
• Developers will no longer be able to submit new apps after July 2024.
• Amazon will redirect resources to other high-priority projects.

The Amazon Appstore is a digital distribution platform for applications developed by Amazon and was launched in the year 2011 to compete with Google Play Store and offers apps and games that are not available on other app stores. It had good prospects at the beginning and it can be said that it had great potential, but the company did not manage to acquire a considerable market share. In the course of time, the platform was struggling to attract the new developers and users, and therefore it was declining.

Amazon Coins which were launched in 2013 also offered consumers a cheaper way to purchase apps, games and in-application purchases. Though finding an immediate success at first, the use of the program began to decline gradually due to other emerging payment systems. This has been evinced by the fact that the closure follows Amazon’s business model of simplification of product categories and concentration on attractive ventures.

For developers, this announcement means that they will need to change the way they do business. Amazon has said that they will support them during the changeover and help them port the apps to other platforms. While the application will be shutting down, the users are urged to exhaust all their amazon coins and download the applications which they have bought.