, Columnist
Amazon Crashes Digital Gate
A third big app store could benefit companies that rely on subscriptions.
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A recurring theme at Gadfly is Amazon.com Inc.'s ambitions to do everything under the sun. It looks as if the company now wants to become a quasi app store similar to Apple or Google's mobile versions.
Amazon on Monday created a single spot for people to sign up to digital subscriptions from companies including the Los Angeles Times and digital file cabinet Dropbox. For the hundreds of millions of customers who have Amazon accounts tied to their credit cards, it's easier to buy from Amazon than handing over their personal information multiple times to sign up individually for Dropbox, the New Yorker and SlingTV.