14 DAY TRIAL // Amazon is running a very interesting promotion aimed at mobile app developers, promoting its Android Appstore and its Amazon Web Services at the same time. The deal is simple, submit an app to the App Store and you get $50 worth of credit to use with the company's cloud services.
The credit is good for a number of cloud services most of what AWS offers.
And it's actually quite a good offer for many developers who need a cloud back-end for their apps. Many of them would have used AWS regardless of the promotion.
"The Amazon Appstore for Android is the place where developers can get exposure for their Android applications through automated merchandising and other marketing," an Amazon page read.
"Amazon also offers great solutions for developers to build apps with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Mobile SDK," it added.
"From September 7, 2011 through November 15, 2011, developers who submit an Android app to the Amazon Appstore are eligible to receive a one-time $50 promotion code for use on certain AWS services," Amazon announced.
It's pretty easy to become part of the promotion, just submit an app in the next month or so to the Amazon Appstore and you'll receive your code.
Of course there are plenty of mobile apps that run perfectly well on their devices alone. But the most interesting ones have an online component and powering it can be a difficult and costly thing, especially for small developers. This is precisely what the AWS was created for.
The timing of the promotion is interesting too, Amazon is expected to launch a new 7-inch, Android powered tablet within the next month, late November at the latest.
So it makes sense for it to try to drum up more developer interest ahead of the big launch. This way, new users will not be greeted by a barren wasteland in the Appstore.