Amazon today announced that it is launching an application store for it’s Kindle e-reader as well as a development kit that will aid developers in producing apps for the device.
“We’ve heard from lots of developers over the past two years who are excited to build on top of Kindle,” remarked Ian Freed, the Vice President of the Amazon Kindle Division. “The Kindle Development Kit opens many possibilities–we look forward to being surprised by what developers invent.”
EA Mobile and Sonic Boom have already signed on to participate in the beta, and will be creating games to compliment the Kindle. It will be interesting to see what they and other developers concoct, considering that the Kindle display is limited to black and white E-Ink pages.
The development kit, meanwhile, will have code, documentation, and a Kindle Simulator, which will allow developers to try out their apps on a virtual Kindle and Kindle DX on Mac, PC, and Linux operating systems.
It is speculated that this move by Amazon is in response to the rumored Apple Tablet, which is said to be launching at the end of this month. If it exists, such a device has the potential to greatly upset the e-reader market, where Kindle is currently king.
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