Before last weekend, information was leaked to the pages of popular Western resources about a possible attempt to take a step to increase the user base of its app store of the same name. Putting the information together and wondering if Unlocked can accomplish the goal Jeff Bezos' company desires. 
The app store Amazon, despite the exclusion of the official app from the Google Play pages, periodically delights users Android of gadgets with free giveaways of premium apps of various topics, whether it's an expensive dictionary, a guitar tuner, a detective quest or weather widget. In the list of such 'gifts' you can often find quite good things. But, judging by the company's presentation leaked into the network, the Unlocked program carries a potential that goes beyond such actions, although there are some similarities. The presentation mentioned the plans of the company to provide program users with a number of premium applications, as well as allow all purchases within some of these applications for free. The promo list included such developers as Sega America with their game Sonic Dash and UsTwo, authors of the indie hit Monument Valley, which indicates the possibility of including not only influential companies in the program, but also not so large initially, but promising developers.
Promotion of Unlocked will be carried out through a separate section in the corporate Android – application available for download in .apk format from the website Amazon, as well as on social networks and web media. The target audience of the program is active Google Play users who do not want to spend money on buying applications and enhancements / additional features inside them. It is planned to attract popular developers, however, the presentation does not mention the model of interaction with them. So, we understand the pros, cons and pitfalls, based on the available data. Undoubtedly, Amazon faces a titanic task – to 'eat off' the share of users from Google Play, the main store for many Android – applications. And such a program will theoretically be able to provide Amazon an increase in user activity, but, unfortunately, it does not guarantee an increase in income. It is possible that participation in Unlocked will not be free for users, but it is too early to talk about it. 
The second moment. Having at their disposal, for example, a game with free purchases, the user happily forgets about the existence of the concept of freemium and enjoys fast and dynamic gameplay. However, at the end of the program's validity period, which is also not mentioned, the application switches to the usual model, which is unlikely to please the player who is accustomed to such grace. Of course, there will be users who will feel sorry for losing their points / passed levels, etc., and who, by inertia, will continue to make in-game purchases, albeit in a smaller volume, but for money. Let's look at free in-game bonuses from a developer's point of view. The activity of users is increasing, and playing time is increasing. Everything seems too rosy, but there is an important aspect behind it – online games such as Clash of Clans and other similar products. It is obvious that free bonuses in such games fundamentally undermine the fairness of the gameplay for those who downloaded the game not through Amazon. Will the developers of such games take the risk of losing loyal users for the sake of Amazon? Doubtful. In addition, it is difficult to assess the prospects for the participation of developers in the program without knowing anything about the nature of compensation, whether it will depend on user activity, we are waiting for the withdrawal of the nondisclosure subscription.
This step is not new for Amazon, attentive readers will remember free shipping within Amazon Prime, free Prime Video movies, as well as numerous, often quite significant price cuts for their popular and not so popular products , among which we can recall the Fire Phone presented with such fanfare, which failed miserably in sales. This anti-success of the smartphone Amazon can easily make developers think about the advisability of working with the company. Basically, Amazon wants to implement a new revenue-generating system, abandoning the approach that is so annoying for freemium game users. The problem is that Unlocked is likely to be a savings project. Amazon This is no stranger to this, but are the developers ready for it? The question remains open. It should be admitted that the meager nature of open information does not yet clarify whether Unlocked will cope with its immediate task. In any case, there is work within the company, and this is always a result, regardless of its nature. We are waiting for the official announcement.
Based on materials from TechCrunch, Android Authority, GSM Arena, The Verge.
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