As most of you know by now, the Amazon Appstore is only available to folks in the US (though there are tricks to get around it) but earlier today, there have been reports of people accessing it from overseas. Amazon didn’t make any announcements about it, so it’s either the case of a silent launch or an error on Amazon’s part. Regardless, folks in Australia, Netherlands, India, the UK, Canada and more countries around the world have reported that they’ve been able to download apps from the Amazon Appstore.
Because local Amazon sites (in those countries) have no links to the Appstore, they were able to access it through the American Amazon site. Not all folks have been successful at accessing it though, so it most probably is due to a mistake in the system’s geo-blocking. In the meantime, if you’re not from the US, why don’t you give the Amazon Appstore a try and let us know how it goes for you. No word on how long this “breach” in access restriction will last, but if you’re one of the lucky ones who can use the Appstore, you can get your fix of the free “app of the day” until it ends – but here’s to hoping that Amazon finally opens the Appstore up to international users.
Update 9/21: It looks like access to the Appstore from non-US countries have been revoked. Amazon didn’t give any explanation or reason why non-US users could access the Appstore, but they did say: “We have not announced any plans for international expansion.” Probably just a mix up or bug of some sort that has been fixed.
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