Amazon coins

Amazon is building out the reach of its virtual currency, Amazon Coins, with new support for Android tablets and smartphones.

Available to customers in Amazon's three largest markets (the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany), Amazon Coins can be used to buy apps and in-app purchases through the Amazon App store on these mobile devices.

Amazon doled out tens of millions of dollars of free Amazon Coins to entice developers to both the currency as well as the App store, which is a big puzzle piece in the company's plan for monetizing the Kindle Fire device and digital content sold through it.The Seattle-headquartered corporation first unveiled its virtual currency scheme one year ago for deployment and payment on the Kindle Fire, with a soft launch in the United States shortly thereafter.

In regards to Coins, App store developers will continue to earn their standard revenue cut of 70 percent when customers make purchases using Amazon Coins.

Thus, this expanded support for Coins is more about providing flexibility and options for the customer while maintaining the status quo for everyone behind the scenes.

Suffice to say, the concept of virtual currency in general has taken off on its own, largely (if not all) in part to the recent media buzz surrounding Bit coin.

Bit coin itself is starting to gain traction with online retailers and warehouses, starting with Overstock.com in January.