Amazon Announces Thousands of Apps for Kindle Fire

Amazon responded to competitors' accusations that its Kindle Fire limits users' access to apps with an announcement that the device will offer thousands of apps when it ships to customers next week. Among the choices on the menu will be apps from Netflix, Rhapsody, Pandora, Twitter, Comics by comiXology, Facebook, The Weather Channel, as well as games from Zynga, EA, Gameloft, PopCap and Rovio.

When the Barnes & Noble Nook launched on Monday, B&N CEO William Lynch did not mince words. Calling the Amazon Kindle Fire a vending machine for the online retail giant, Lynch painted the device as being media deficient and sorely lacking in non-Amazon goods.

We started talking to app developers everywhere the day we introduced Kindle Fire, and the response has been overwhelming, said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle, in a press release Wednesday morning. In addition to over 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, and magazines from Amazon, we are excited to offer customers thousands of apps and games to choose from on Kindle Fire, said Limp, going on to name the apps listed above. And this is only the beginning, he continued. We're adding more apps and games every day across all categories.

The Android Appstore for Amazon is a boon to the Kindle Fire, which will face tough competition from the Nook this holiday season. The Nook currently offers only about a thousand apps, but offers greater storage space, doubling the Kindle Fire's 8GB with 16GB preinstalled and the option to add an additional 32GB via microSD card.