Amazon launches first mobile game on Kindle Fire, Android and iOS

Amazon is stretching its gaming muscles as Amazon Game Studio launches its first mobile game.
Titled Air Patriots, the game combines elements of the popular mobile game, Flight Control, with strategic tower defense-style gameplay.
Players will draw the flight paths for their squadron of planes while defending their base from invading enemies on the ground.
On Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD, Air Patriots will make use of Amazon GameCircle to track more than 50 achievements. Users can also take advantage of WhisperSync to save game progress in the cloud to transfer between Kindle Fires.

Amazon's got game

Amazon has been growing its game development studios over the last year, starting with the launch of its first Facebook gameLiving Classics.
Amazon in entering the social game space during an interesting time. The once dominant EA and Zynga both shed much of their workforce as the latter also reports substantial third quarter losses.
The move to mobile games makes Amazon one of only two companies to make both a tablet and mobile games to play on it. The second is Microsoft, which has its first-party Microsoft Games Studio developing for Surface as well as Windows Phone.
Amazon launched its game simultaneously on Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD, as well as all Android devices, iPhone, and iPad.
It's a free download, which includes the first three levels, and users can get the remaining four levels with an in-app purchase of $2.99 (UK£1.85, AUD$2.87).

Netflix takes on Lovefilm on home turf with UK Kindle Fire app

Netflix has released a dedicated Kindle Fire app for the UK, taking the movie streaming fight to Lovefilm on its own Amazon-owned turf.
The Netflix app is now available in the Amazon App Store in the UK so you can now stream Netflix's films and TV shows on the Amazon Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD.
There is already an Android app for Netflix and this is really just a rebadged version for the Amazon tablets, but it's not difficult to see why the streaming service would want to directly target the Kindle devices.

App attack

Amazon owns both the Kindle line and Lovefilm, and has pre-loaded the Kindle tablets with the Lovefilm app.
As well as this, the company has made it easy for new Kindle Fire owners to link their Amazon and Lovefilm accounts for all their video streaming needs.
The Kindle Fire line-up has already proven hugely popular in the States, with Amazon claiming it as the best-selling product ever on Amazon.com; and with its killer combination of low price-tag, good reviews and Amazon's marketing might, it's set to do well everywhere else too with its defacto Lovefilm movie streaming on board.
The two companies have been battling it out for content rights since Netflix hit the UK in January 2012, but now the fight has moved to the platform stage where Amazon has a huge advantage.

Amazon Kindle Fire HD is a 'worldwide bestseller'

Retail giant blows its own trumpet over its tablet 

The Amazon Kindle Fire HD has been named the "#1 best-selling product across all of Amazon worldwide" by the online retail giant.
We saw Amazon launch the Kindle Fire HD back in September as it looked to tackle the Google Nexus 7 which took the budget tablet market by storm in the middle of this year.
Clearly wanting to take the fight to Google, and possibly firing a warning shot at Apple with its incoming iPad mini, Amazon has slapped a best-selling tag on its 7-inch Android tablet.

Sales figures mystery

Amazon hasn't been forthcoming with any sort of sales figures, or an explanation as to how the Kindle Fire HD has become a best-selling tablet – this could mean anything from its sold the most units of any product ever, or simply that it the most popular device at this time.
With all that in mind, we're taking Amazon's latest claim with a pinch of salt, as it's not clear how well the Kindle Fire HD is actually selling in comparison to other tablets on the market.