By 
Amazon has announced the launch of a new digital currency for owners of its Kindle Fire products. Dubbed Amazon Coins, this simple service aims to make purchasing things more easy for those who frequent Amazon’s digital marketplace. Coins have a monetary value of 1 cent, so 500 coins is the equivalent of $5. That’s how much Kindle Fire users will be given for free to try the service out, and you can purchase more on your tablets or Amazon.com.
Yet another digital currency might seem pointless at first, but Amazon promises users will benefit from using coins. For starters, getting your coins in bulk could net you up to 10% off, so you’re getting more for your money in the long run if you find yourself buying a lot of content. The service is also great for loading up your childrens’ account and making sure they don’t use your credit card as freely as they want.
Amazon Coins will also benefit developers who might not otherwise be able to sell their apps in their native currency, and will also pave the way for more global users to be able to purchase apps and games. There is virtually no change for developers — they’ll still get their 70% cut of the revenue, and they won’t need to do any extra coding to allow people to pay with coins. It’ll be interesting to see how this is received by Kindle fans and developers, but we can’t imagine too many people will be vexed about more options for paying for new content.
[via Amazon]
Let’s see. If this works just like any other form of digital currency items will be priced at something like 510 coins but you can only buy 500 coins at a time. Resulting in you having 490 extra coins. So what do you do? You buy another 500 coins do you can get something else for 510 coins. Repeat ad nauseum as Amazon laughs their way to the bank.
While it’s not too different from the concept of a gift card, it basically boils down to Amazon earning interest on money paid before any purchase is made.
With a gift card though I can use the remainder of a gift card and finish my purchase with my credit card. Not typically so with digital currencies like this.
Yup, the same BS tactic Microsoft pulls on Xbox Live for movie rental (arcade and on-demand games are priced to match up with the purchasing options, and full on-demand games can be paid for directly with paypal or a credit card.)
Give you a option for kids purchases
Plus It doesn’t. Cost you anything to try it if you have a kindle 500 free coins or 5 dollars.