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Amazon To Use Virtual Coins on Kindle Fire By Jennifer LeClaire February 5, 2013 1:43PM     "Tablets literally crushed traditional laptop and desktop sales during the holiday season," said analyst Brad Shimmin of Amazon's virtual currency planned for Kindle Fire. "Amazon is wise to roll out Coins. Unlike the Facebook rendition, which in some ways is a solution looking for a problem, this makes a lot more sense."   Related Topics Amazon Kindle Fire E-Commerce Amazon Appstore Google Play Latest News Oculus VR Gets Huge Funding Boost Huawei Phone Is a Quarter-Inch Thin Yahoo, Apple Disclose Data Requests Free Video Messaging Comes to Skype Prism's Secret: Bigger Data Seizure Amazon on Tuesday unveiled a new virtual currency for purchasing apps , games and in-app items on the Kindle Fire. Dubbed Amazon Coins, the e-tailing giant is positioning its innovation as an easier way to spend money in the Amazon Appstore. Many analysts have called Kindle products a virtual vending machine. The virtual currency, then, makes good sense for Amazon. As a way to prime the pump, Amazon is planning to give away tens of millions of dollars worth of free Amazon Coins to spend on Kindle Fire apps when the virtual currency launches in May. Amazon also hopes to woo app and game developers with Coins by driving more traffic to its app store. Amazon Appstore developers will earn their standard 70 percent revenue share when customers make purchases using Amazon Coins. The Developer's Pitch "Developers continue to report higher conversion rates on Amazon compared to other platforms," said Paul Ryder, vice president of apps and games for Amazon. "Now we have another new way to help developers reach even more of our millions of customers." Amazon Coins is the latest in a series of new features and services for developers. Other announcements include in-app purchasing for Mac, PC and Web-based games, Game Circle, Game Connect, A/B Testing, Adobe AIR Native Extensions, and Amazon Mobile App SDK Eclipse Plugin (beta). "Everyone recognizes Amazon's success in the e-commerce world -- now the Amazon Appstore has become a major player in the mobile app marketplace," said Misha Lyalin, ZeptoLab's CEO. "Amazon's new virtual currency is designed to open new opportunities for developers and make things easier for customers. This is a great example of Appstore innovation and we want to support it." Will Consumers Buy It? Of course, it won't work unless the customers use it. Brad Shimmin, principal analyst at Current Analysis, told us if any company is positioned to make this approach work, it is Amazon. "First, Amazon has an extremely robust and mature marketplace platform. Secondly, they have established an un-walled garden approach to content and applications," Shimmin said. "For example, you can use apps from the Amazon Appstore on your Android device the same way you use apps from the Google Play store on your Android device. Amazon is a bit of a Switzerland in terms of application marketplaces go, relative to the likes of Apple with iTunes." Shimmin points out that Coins is altogether different than Google Wallet, which has a much broader scope of intent. Google Wallet aims to get consumers to use their phone to buy retail products on-site. Amazon, by contrast, is trying to forward a method of simplifying and speeding the consumption of Amazon goods on the Kindle Fire. "The tablet form factor is a preferred method for shopping online. Tablets literally crushed traditional laptop and desktop sales during the holiday season. Amazon is wise to roll out Coins," Shimmin said. "Unlike the Facebook rendition, which in some ways is a solution looking for a problem, this makes a lot more sense given the way people interact with the Amazon Appstore now."   Tell Us What You Think Comment: Name: Also Visit: iPad Info Center Billions of Bytes Mobile Device Now Apple Info Center TopTechWire.com Redefine the way you do business by analyzing market trends, increasing conversion, and creating customer loyalty through Microsoft Dynamics. Unlock your potential through real-time CRM solutions in sales, marketing, and customer service to help your business become more dynamic than ever before.  E-Commerce 1.   Mobile Payments Slow To Catch On 2.   Small Business Gets Mobile Ad Boost 3.   Will #Hashtags Be a #Facebook Hit? 4.   Terse Testimony in E-Book Trial 5.   Google Offers a Business Dashboard Mobile Payments Slow To Catch On With lack of consensus on standards. Average Rating: Small Business Gets Mobile Ad Boost Online marketing adapted for mobile. Average Rating: Will #Hashtags Be a #Facebook Hit? Social Network makes them clickable. Average Rating:

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Enterprise Hardware Spotlight

Samsung Offers Tiny, Superfast PCIe SSDs for Ultrabooks Solid-state drives are continuing their march forward. On Monday, Samsung Electronics announced it has started to mass produce the first PCI-Express 3.0 SSDs for the new wave of Ultrabooks.   Amazon.com Joins 3D Printer Craze, Enabling Wide Availability Commercially available 3D printers have recently moved from being expensive hobbyist devices to being pricey but accessible consumer and manufacturing machines. And now, Amazon.com will sell 3D printers & supplies online.   New Facebook Data Center Uses All Home-Grown Servers Facebook has opened its new data center in Lulea, Sweden. The data center is a first in two ways: the first in Europe and the first to be equipped with all Facebook-designed, Open Compute servers.

Mobile Enterprise Spotlight

Why Google's Project Loon is Smart Business Google is once again proving that it's much more than a search engine or even a mobile-device company, with Project Loon. The initiative aims to bring "balloon-powered Internet" to isolated areas of the world.   Authorities Want Smartphone 'Kill Switch' To Fight Thefts Law enforcement authorities are calling on the smartphone industry to adopt "kill switch" technologies that would deter theft by squeezing the market for selling stolen devices, which would be worthless if "bricked."   Small Business Gets Boost from Mobile Marketing Aside from the requisite e-commerce tricks, small businesses are turning their attention to the mobile arena to engage social media-savvy customers, as mobile marketing tools offer more channels.

Enterprise Technology Spotlight

New Facebook Data Center Uses All Home-Grown Servers Facebook has opened its new data center in Lulea, Sweden. The data center is a first in two ways: the first in Europe and the first to be equipped with all Facebook-designed, Open Compute servers.   Cisco Telecom Router Ready for Internet Traffic Flood The Carrier Routing System-X unveiled by Cisco for the telecommunications industry is a 400 Gbps per slot system that can be expanded to nearly 1 petabit per second, enough to deal with the coming flood in demand.   HP's IT in a Box Targets SMBs by Using Google Apps Hewlett-Packard is partnering with Google on HP SMB IT in a Box, which it bills as a "one-stop shop" solution for small and medium business customers. The move is likely to ruffle Microsoft's feathers.

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