Amazon Appstore hosting deals to mark first birthday

Amazon Appstore users can enjoy birthday discounts this week on such apps as Plants vs. Zombies, Fruit Ninja, Wolfram Alpha, and Splashtop Remote Desktop.

Starting today, users can grab a 67 percent discount off Plants vs. Zombies. Normally selling for $2.99, the popular game can be had for just 99 cents today. Tomorrow, two more deals will debut, followed by three new deals on the third day, and so on into next week, Amazon said today.

"Customers have used the Amazon Appstore to test drive and buy millions of apps and games for their Kindle Fire and other Android devices in the first year alone," Aaron Rubenson, director of Amazon Appstore for Android, said in a statement. "To thank customers for shopping with us, we worked closely with our developers to offer special discounts on some of the most popular apps all week long."

The retail giant is also offering a birthday giveaway in the form of an Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. To enter the Fire sweepstakes, contestants will need to visit the Amazon Appstore Facebook page and click the "like" button by March 31. The eight Kindle Fire winners will be announced on or around April 5.

Touting the growth of the Appstore over the past year, Amazon said that the number of apps has risen to 31,000 from an initial 4,000. In the first year, the most popular free apps were Angry Birds Free, followed by Netflix and MobilityWare's Solitaire. The most popular paid apps were Cut the Rope, followed by Angry Birds (Ad-Free) and Where's My Water? Amazon also offers a paid app for free each day.

Games have proven to be the hottest type of category, with entertainment and productivity in second and third place, respectively.

Amazon's Appstore officially opened for business on March 22 last year, offering Android users an alternative to Google's Android Market, now known as Google Play.