Amazon is making a move to highlight its wealth of music, books, TV shows, movies, apps and games today with the release of a new “best of” digital store. Got a shiny new Kindle Fire for Christmas? Amazon wants you to download, download, download to your heart’s content.
For Amazon, this is an “of course they would” moment. The company loses money on the hardware for the Kindle Fire and basically breaks even on other Kindle products. Amazon then must push consumers to its digital products. What better way to do so then by highlighting some of its best paid apps and expensive books?
Christmas is the largest day for digital sales on Amazon.com, followed by Dec. 26, according to the company. This makes perfect sense a popular gift for the oh-so-hard-to-shop-for person in your life tends to be an Amazon gift card. This year there is far more to highlight for Amazon as it has been busy making content partnerships with the major TV and movie studios, record labels and top app makers. In terms of content, this was the year that Amazon exploded and diverged away from its traditional book offerings.
The top recommended Kindle book is “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, the official biography of Apple’s founder. “The Social Network,” about Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg, is the top movie.
What really of interest to us are the apps. ESPN Score Center is the top recommended Android app, followed by LinkedIn, QuickOffice Pro, The Weather Channel, EasyTether, Exchange by Touchdown, Pandora, Urbanspoon, MapQuest and Zillow Real Estate. Those seem like some strange choices for a best of list. LinkedIn’s Android app has been thoroughly lambasted by the tech media while MapQuest is distinctly NOT Google Maps.
The regular suspects dominate the list for Android games. Angry Birds takes the top spot, Words With Friends second and Bejeweled 2 in third.
Software has two Office products in the top listings, with Microsoft Office: Home & Student 2010 the top and Office Mac Home & Student 2011 second.
Of course, Amazon is touting its own apps as well with Kindle for (pick your platform), Amazon Mobile, MP3, Price Check, Deals and Windowshop all on the list.
What is your “best of” for 2011? Did Amazon’s editors get it right? Let us know in the comments.
