We have recently seen the launch of Amazon.com Inc.’s Appstore for Android. It was not the first 3rd party app store and it is unlikely to be the last. GetJar has been around for a little while and there are now rumours of Barnes & Noble Inc. starting its own repository of Android apps.
All of these in addition to Google’s very own Android Market. The questions is – do we need all of these markets/app stores – or whatever you want to call them?
Well, on the plus side, they provide further choice to then end user. There is no doubt that the Android Market has its fair share of weaknesses and so it could, perhaps, be argued that having alternative solutions for installing apps on your Android device is a good thing.
It could, however, also be argued that multiple app stores will in fact reduce choice and end up being an hassle for the end user. If an app is only available through one of the third-party app stores then, if you want that app, you are forced to use their app store – regardless of its strengths and weaknesses. This is already happening with Angry Birds Rio being exclusive to the Amazon.com app portal. There will be more examples of this happening as different app store owners try and entice us into their lairs.
Certainly the new Amazon.com Appstore looks much nicer than the rather ugly Android Market – although the user experience is not as rounded as using the official market. One glaring omission is the inability to uninstall apps from with the Appstore app itself. You can get rid of them, but you have to go through the system settings. Very irritating.
Ultimately, I cannot help feeling that having to use multiple apps to manage the apps on your device can only result in bad user experience. How do I remember which one I used to install which app? What happens if I accidentally install the same app twice from different locations?
In the end, it was inevitable in an open environment such as Android. It really does seem to me, however, that this is going to benefit the corporations trying to sell us apps far more than it ever will us poor old end users.
