Much like Prime for Android, “Amazon Unlocked for Apps & Games” is a new program that offers Amazon Appstore users an all-inclusive package of paid apps and in-app purchasing for free. The bundle includes popular gaming and professional apps such as Sonic Dash and OfficeSuite 8 + PDF Converter among others, valued anywhere between $0.99 and $9.95. To access these and other updated “unlocked” apps, users will have to download the Amazon app, where they can download their choice of unlocked apps for free. 

According to TechCrunch “[details] such as when Unlocked is expected to launch, or the full list of actual participating apps,” have not yet surfaced.

What has been confirmed however, is that users will need to download the Amazon app in order to access and download the available unlocked apps. Amazon hopes that this new initiative of offering valued apps for free can in turn bolster the number of people downloading the Amazon app itself.

“Once users download the Amazon app, and then the Unlocked version of a selected app, they will be presented with further Unlocked branding each time that an in-app purchase has been waived, along with more options to share the experience with others,” TechCrunch explains. 

While navigating through the Appstore, users will be given several recommendations, some curated based on previous downloads and others filtered by those apps that have been identified as being unlocked.

As with its traditional e-commerce business, Amazon Unlocked will offer customers value in apps priced well below its competitors. In turn, Amazon can effectively “[play] up the volume-based game of aggregating lots of revenues on thin margins, through economies of scale, and simply [make] their platform more sticky for users to come back for more,” notes TechCrunch.

Amazon Unlocked will eventually cycle through some of its apps, so that certain apps become unavailable after an extended period. When that happens, the company hopes it can retain a large enough audience that is willing to pay to keep the app and in turn create a lucrative payoff for the app’s developers.