Here's some very interesting news regarding the new Amazon Android

App store. It seems that Amazon will be setting the retail price for its apps, and not developers:

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazo...pricing-2011-1

Seems interesting. Developers looking for a minimum price sold for their products will likely side step this marketplace without some precedent of monetary return prior to being released. Of course, this gives Amazon an incredible competitive edge when it comes to price, as they can literally lower the price, or draw people in with free apps (at cost to them -- and lower returns to the developer).

Interestingly, as Amazon is a profit generating retailer, they will do everything in their power to maximize profits, which should be quite comforting to developers selling in the marketplace.

I actually like this model a lot more than the developer-as-a-direct-wholesaler model of current app stores. It fosters stronger competition among retailers and Amazon will be able to strategically set consumer prices to remain competitive or maximize profit; similar to the way retail operations function today.

Of course, the difference between retail operations today, is that there is a pre-negotiated minimum per-unit price based on the product and volume. This doesn't exist in the Amazon model. As a developer, this would be worrying, but time will tell if there is need to worry.