Amazon Coins Pre-Payment For Kindle Fire Apps Arrives In Britain

Amazon has brought its Amazon Coins currency to the UK, and has given all Kindle Fire customers £4 worth as an incentive to start using the pre-payment scheme.

The UK-denomination Coins are worth 10p, and can be used to buy games and apps at a discount for the Kindle Fire tablet. They have previously been available only in the US.

In app purchases

The Coins are a pre-payment scheme which offers users up to a ten percent discount on purchases, but they can only be used to buy apps and games from the Kindle Fire Appstore. They can also be used for in-app purchases, which is Amazon’s big hope for the currency, as it will make it easier for customers to buy upgrades to time-wasters like Angry Birds and Candy Crush Saga.

The coins cannot be transferred between users or redeemed for cash, and also cannot be used to buy digital content such as e-books or music, let alone real-world items.  The promotional coins will expire after one year if they are not used, while any coins which are purchased will not expire.

However the advertised discount is only available to customers who have bought more than 5000 coins, costing £45. Amazon is absorbing this discount itself, and passing on its normal 70 percent to developers according to the site.

Early reviews on the Amazon site give Amazon credit for the boost this will give to games developers, but are critical of the limited scope of the scheme so far. ” It needs to be extended to cover music & eBooks,” said one reviewer.

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