Amazon joins Apple, Google by reducing its app store cut

Enlarge / The Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet, which runs Amazon's Fire OS. (credit: Amazon)

Apparently following the lead of Apple and Google, Amazon has announced that it will take a smaller revenue cut from apps developed by teams earning less than $1 million annually from their apps on the Amazon Appstore. The same applies to developers who are brand-new to the marketplace.

The new program from Amazon, called the Amazon Appstore Small Business Accelerator Program, launches in Q4 of this year, and it will reduce the cut Amazon takes from app revenue, which was previously 30 percent. (Developers making over $1 million annually will continue to pay the original rate.) For some, it's a slightly worse deal than Apple's or Google's, and for others, it's better.

Amazon's new indie-friendly rate is 20 percent, in contrast to Apple's and Google's 15 percent. Amazon seeks to offset this difference by granting developers 10 percent of their Appstore revenue in the form of a credit for AWS. For certain developers who use AWS, it could mean that Amazon's effective cut is actually 10 percent, not 15 or 20 percent.