Similar to some of the aftermath of Google I/O this past summer, as Amazon’s press event last week fades into history we are starting to discover some other changes in their ecosystem that may have been overlooked in the excitement of the Amazon Kindle Fire HD announcement. One of these new features Amazon is implementing is the ability for developers to sell physical goods “in-app.” Initially this appears to only be rolling out in games, but other uses are sure to emerge. This capability will be a point of differentiation compared to Google and Apple.

Amazon has indicated their first partner is Activision, which plans to make toys available in its Skylanders game. The toys will connect to the game using a “portal” plugged into a videogame console. Once plugged in, the toy activates a character inside the game. In order to purchase the characters, players will buy them from within the game using Amazon’s 1-Click Purchasing. Amazon indicates a player’s progression with a character in the console version of the game will carryover to the mobile version. This will likely be achieved using Amazon’s new Whispersync for games capability that was announced last week. An indication of how important games are to Amazon’s overall strategy is the announcement that the new Kindle Fire will have a separate tab to access the games category in the Appstore.

Is the ability to order physical goods something to get excited about? Can you think of any ways this could be used effectively outside of games?

source: All Things D