Amazon is strengthening its presence on mobile apps by paying developers to carry advertisements for its products in their applications, as online shopping via smartphones booms.

The move highlights how mobile devices have become the fiercest battleground in ecommerce, but it is also a reminder of how Amazon – famed for its pioneering inventions – has been slow to innovate in the area.

Under a plan announced yesterday, app owners can earn a commission fee of up to 6 per cent from Amazon when users buy a product that has been promoted on their app.

Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research, said: "I would have thought that Amazon would have done this two or three years ago."

Given that website owners have been able to earn money by posting Amazon advertisements since the late 1990s, she said: “How hard is it to take what you’re already doing and apply it to apps, which are the fastest-growing way people are accessing content?”

The Amazon programme is for apps that run on devices using Google’s Android operating system, including Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet. The retailer is also rumoured to be developing a smartphone.

Ms Mulpuru said most app developers were looking for additional ways to make money, but added that not every app would fit naturally with the ability to buy products with one click from Amazon.

Amazon suggested its plan would appeal to developers whose apps specialise in areas such as nutrition or fitness, as they could promote vitamins or equipment available on Amazon. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013)