You probably haven’t heard about Amazon TestDrive, which is disappointing since it was a very interesting concept. Basically, it allowed you to test out certain apps from within your browser rather than having to install them on your mobile device. Unfortunately, the service hasn’t been seeing the kind of popularity that Amazon wants, and the company has decided to shut it down.
Since its launch in March 2011, over 16,000 apps have been launched on TestDrive, giving customers the experience of running the app and discovering new features before committing to purchase. However, with the increasing use of ‘free to play’ business models, we have seen a significant decline in customers using TestDrive, and effective 15th April 2015, we will decommission the TestDrive service. What do you need to do? Nothing – it’s just the TestDrive service that is being decommissioned. Apps that are currently using TestDrive will still be available and promoted in the Appstore, but without TestDrive functionality. The TestDrive category will be removed from the Appstore client, and we will not be enabling TestDrive for new app submissions.
