Amazon is not in an enviable position with its Android Appstore. With so many users already exposed to the convenience of Google’s Play Store baked right in to their Android experiences, convincing them to enable sideloading, install Amazon’s app, and then juggle two incompatible app stores from there on out can be a tall order. Still, Amazon does what it can to stir up interest, often by means of big app giveaways – and it’s got just such an offer running right now. But now a leaked presentation attempts to clue us in to what could be the company’s next effort to generate interest in the Appstore, through a program called Unlocked.

Unlocked would offer users select apps for free. That’s similar enough to what Amazon does now with its regular promotions, but with the key distinction here that with Unlocked it’s not just the app itself that’s free, but 100 percent of the in-app purchases users might find waiting within. It would also cover a decent number of titles, rather than doling out free apps one at a time.

There would also be a big difference from a developer standpoint, as Unlocked titles could be revoked. Unlike current Amazon Appstore freebies, which you get to keep, Unlocked would support apps leaving the program. For some software that might even mean that you can keep the app on your phone, but all those IAPs go away. If you really liked what you saw, though, you’d be free to buy them right back.

This all sounds a bit like it might be a subscription service, or even a component to Amazon Prime, but that’s yet to be confirmed by any of this leaked info. It’s possible it could just evolve as the successor to the current Free App of the Day. But no matter how Unlocked does arrive, it seems clear that Amazon’s very interested in continuing to fight the good fight against the Play Store and keep its Appstore relevant in the minds of Android users.

Source: Tech Crunch