As it looks to continue adding new products to its app store at a rapid pace, Amazon is to encourage developers by offering to transfer fees for their work directly to their banks electronically.

The step comes just two weeks after the online selling giant launched its Appstore in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, and the new quick payments are available in all of these countries except the last.

The Amazon Appstore was first launched in the US last year as a competitor to Google's Play store, and offers many of the same apps as are available from Google.

But analyst Tim Shepherd of Canalys told Mikael Ricknas of Pcadvisor.co.uk: "For users with Android-based smartphones, [Amazon's app store] provides an alternative source for applications from a trusted brand to Google's Play store.

"Amazon curates apps more carefully than Google, which has benefits when it comes to security," he added.