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Josh Miller/CNET
Amazon’s app store now has 200,000 apps, CEO Jeff Bezos announced Thursday in a letter to investors.
The store has nearly tripled in size over the past year and is now in almost 200 countries, Bezos wrote in the letter, which also covered the rest of Amazon’s multitude of services, including Prime, Instant Video, Amazon Web Services, and Mayday support.
Wall Street didn’t seem very impressed, despite Bezos writing that the long list of services is an example of Amazon’s “inventive spirit and push for exceptional quality.” Amazon’s stock price fell nearly 4 percent, or $12.42, to $319.38, in recent trading.
The Amazon Appstore launched in March 2011 with 3,800 apps. Amazon reported having 100,000 apps in August, which means it’s doubled the number of apps in less than a year. It still has a long way to go if it wants to catch up with Apple and Google, which dominate the app market. Apple’s store features over 1 million apps, and Google reported that its Play store hit 1 million apps last year.
Amazon has said in the past that it’s focused on quality and not quantity. The company says it’s worked hard to attract developers to its store, providing lots of support tools and adding features aimed at getting customers to spend more money.
The features include Amazon Coins, a virtual currency customers can buy in bulk for a discount. Coins is used as a promotional tool and was recently offered during the Amazon Fire TV launch, when Amazon threw in 1,000 free coins with the purchase of the device’s video game controller accessory.
