Amazon launched their App Store for Android this morning (I hope I don’t get sued for calling it an App Store), curious as ever I decided to take a look.  First I searched in the Android Market, but found nothing new from Amazon there, so I went back to Amazon and clicked “Get App” which gave me instructions to install the App Store:

The instructions then go on to provide download and installation instructions for the Amazon AppStore.

So lets examine, first you have find and select the “Unknown Sources” box to allow installation of an app that is not in the Android Market.  Of course if you are on AT&T they don’t support this setting, so you are out of luck (I guess it really sucks to be an Angry Birds fan with an ATT Android device).

Once installed, you log in with your Amazon account, which makes purchasing apps easy.  The application itself is easy to use, and search, I would say better than the Android Market app which though improved still needs some work.

I just wonder what the long term plan is for the Amazon App Store, I think a lot of people will be turned off with the install process, and I suspect that Google will not allow the app in the Android Market, since an App that downloads other Apps violates the terms of use.  Google might want to reconsider, given the recent problems with Apps that contained malware on Android, giving Android owners a trusted source like Amazon to download apps from might actually help grow the platform, not hurt it.  In it’s current state  though I think many people won’t even install it, and some can’t even if they want to, does not sound like a promising launch to me.

For anyone wondering, no I still have not downloaded Angry Birds, and don’t plan on it, even if Amazon is giving it away today.