GetJar vs. Amazon: Android Markets Battle

Cut The Rope goes exclusive to GetJar... for six whole days.

While developers have had a hard time making much money on Android titles, Android Markets are still competing to see who's going to be the best at distributing Android apps. One way for them to compete is by signing exclusive deals with developers. If you're the only place to get Angry Birds, you're going to get a lot of traffic. GetJar had its traffic spike 10 times normal after it was the first place to get Angry Birds for Android, and they had 1.9 million downloads of the title in a few days. That's what Amazon did with Angry Birds Rio, as well as Plants Vs. Zombies, and it bought them a lot of traffic.

Which is why GetJar got themselves an exclusive to Cut The Rope, the  iOS title that's hit the coveted No. 1 slot in the App Store, which now is coming out for Android... exclusively on GetJar. Well, exclusively for six whole days before it appears in the Android Market. That doesn't sound like much of a window of opportunity, which is no doubt why GetJar plans to promote the game heavily in that time frame.

Of course, we don't know what deal the developer got from GetJar for this exclusive. Nothing succeeds like success; only the #1 games are going to get these kind of promotional deals. Though GetJar is trying to play nice with developers and promises them far more opportunities for promotion and marketing than they'll get with other markets. No doubt true, since most other markets do little or nothing at all. Except Amazon, which is trying to set a new standard for app markets.

I expect we'll see more marketing "opportunities" being offered by markets to developers, such as discounts, advertising, and so on, as ways for developrs to try and gain a little visibility in the seemingly endless sea of apps. (When you want to be found, and you're one of hundreds of thousands of products, you do have to find a way to get noticed.) Some of these "opportunities" may in fact be good ones... some will just be a way to throw money away. I hope to find out which is which before spending anything...