Android developers are being paid to boost the Amazon Appstore’s lineup

Amazon is offering Android developers up to $15,000 in Amazon Coins digital currency to attract more apps to the Amazon Appstore for its upcoming Fire smartphone, which the company announced earlier this week. Of course, there are a few catches before developers can get their hands on all that digital cash. Amazon is offering 500,000 coins (equivalent to $5,000) for each app developers submit to the Appstore. Developers can then use those coins to provide incentives for customers who purchase their app or in-app-purchases, such as rebates on purchases, or incentives for completing achievements. But developers won’t be getting Amazon’s free money without a little work. Apps will need to take advantage of some Fire-only features in order to qualify for Amazon’s bounty. The move is a clear attempt to try and shore up some of the Fire’s shortcomings out of the gate: a lack of third-party app support compared to the Google Play Store and iOS App Store, and a potential lack of apps that take advantage of the phone’s unique features.