Now then, here’s a topic I’ve not talked about for a while, with the last time I mentioned it in any kid of depth was last year: the Amazon Appstore. There’s a very good reason why I’ve not mentioned it in ages, and it’s quite simply because you can only actually use the Amazon Appstore if you’re in the colonies. Well, alright, the USA, ‘cos Aussies are out of luck, too.
However, that’s rumoured to not be the case much longer, because according to AllThingsD, the Amazon Appstore is allegedly coming to selected European countries this summer, and we’re one of ’em (along with Germany, France, Austria, Italy and Spain). Naturally, I have some thoughts on this, so strap yourselves in…
First up, why would anyone use this instead of Google Play that comes built in? Ah, well, y’see, there is actually a reason; Amazon offer a paid app every day for free, so you can build a legal collection of paid apps that you actually paid nothing for. That is cool. However, to counter against that, I have to wonder whether the Amazon Appstore checks device compatibility in the same way that Google Play does.
Y’see, many people wibble on about platform fragmentation, but the fact is this: Android is fragmented. I know this, because I have an HTC One X, and you’d be surprised what apps I can’t use, ‘cos I’m running on a Tegra processor (Gameloft and EA games are particularly susceptible to not being supported on my phone, for example). That’s not a problem in Google Play, because it automatically checks device compatibility, but will the Amazon Appstore do the same, or do you run the risk of buying apps that subsequently won’t work on your phone?
Hmm, having checked their site, it apparently does check device compatibility, so that’s alright, then!
However, the issue of the Amazon Appstore being available in Europe raises another very intriguing possibility: since this is the app store that the Kindle Fire tablet uses, does this mean that the Kindle Fire will finally, finally be available in the UK? ‘Cos, y’know, if it does, that would be very, very win. I’ve seen loads of tablets, from the likes of Samsung and Motorola, but the one that keeps catching my eye is the Kindle Fire. I know there was some issue with the Silk browser’s usage tracking, which might have caused problems with data protection, but does this news signal the fact that Amazon have sorted it out?
One can only hope.
Although having said that, if I was going to buy a tablet, it’d be the Asus Transformer Prime, ‘cos of that bleedin’ awesome keyboard dock for it. Still, it would be nice to see the Kindle Fire finally land over here…
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