For a very brief period yesterday Aussies could access Amazon’s previously geoblocked App store. It’s now blocked again, but the same pattern appears to be happening worldwide. What’s Amazon up to?
Amazon’s App store offers an alternative Android app marketplace with a slicker appearance than the stock Android Marketplace, not to mention some genuinely good free apps each and every day. Great stuff, but it’s been blocked for users outside the US up until now. That blocking message is still present if you visit the Amazon App store site, but yesterday it appears that the veil was lifted, if only ever so briefly. Ausdroid reported on the Australian availability of the service yesterday, and from PocketGamer it appears that availability was also open to those in Holland and India.
It’s always possible that somebody in Amazon HQ accidentally spilled their soy latte on the wrong server, but equally, it could be Amazon testing the waters. I’ve just checked it, and it’s definitely blocked right now — but could this be a precursor to rolling out the service (and perhaps the Kindle tablet) worldwide? [Ausdroid and PocketGamer]