Amazon cashes in on the latest crazes. When Oprah was on top, Amazon pushed her reading recommendations. When Magic Bullet juicers were popular, Amazon sold them first. Now, Amazon is attempting to break into the popular Android market with Amazon Appstore for Android.

Directly competing with Google Android Market, Amazon has rolled out the red carpet. In true Amazon style, Android users can get apps through Amazon that can’t be found anywhere else. In addition, Amazon offers buyers certain incentives that Google just can’t compete with.

Free Apps

Since its inception, Amazon Appstore has been giving away one free app every day. That’s right, if you head on over to the Amazon Appstore, you’ll see today’s free offering (usually a game of sorts). It really doesn’t matter whether or not most people want the free app, have ever heard of the free app, or know what the free app does. It’s still a free app, and (as every marketer knows) people like free things.

What’s the logic behind giving away apps for free? Once you download your free daily offering, you’re twice as likely to tour the rest of the site. After all, most apps are only $0.99. Careful though, those apps add up quickly (Amazon is betting on it!).

Only On Amazon

What do consumers love more than getting things for free? Being part of an exclusive group, of course. Just look to all of those “invite only” shopping sites. People sign up for these sites, so that they can be a part of something exclusive. Amazon understands this notion, and they’ve put exclusivity to the test with the Amazon Appstore.

There are some apps that you can only get through Amazon. For example, Amazon has a few private Angry Birds games. These games aren’t fantastic, they’re not better than the rest, but they can only be purchased through Amazon, and that’s all most consumers need to know.

Setting up the App

Google isn’t about to let Android users download the Amazon app from the Android Market. That means that those who want the Amazon app will have to set up this download independently. This can be accomplished by setting up an Android phone to receive installations and downloads from unknown sources.

Allowing a phone to accept downloads from unknown sources is risky business, but it’s the only way to use the Amazon app. Just in case users have a hard time setting this up, Amazon has create a helpful manual that can be found on the Amazon website. You can sort apps according to genre, and Amazon should be setting up a recommendations tab too. Just be careful when it comes to download size, since Amazon doesn’t list the size of app downloads.

If you’re tempted to use the Amazon marketplace (and with all of Amazon’s target market research, why wouldn’t you be?), go ahead and give it a shot. You won’t find much difference between the Android Market and Amazon’s Appstore, but you may like all the effort Amazon has put into this app.