The Amazon Appstore for Android went live Tuesday morning, featuring nearly 30 categories of mobile apps such as books, games, social networking, music, and more.
The Appstore offers one free paid app per day. Tuesday's gratis app is Angry Birds Rio, a new version of the wildly popular game based on the new animated flick, Rio.
You can also test-drive apps on your PC. "You control the app with your mouse and experience it like you would on your phone," reads the description on the store's Test Drive page. Similarly, Google allows you to return an app to the Android Market within the first 15 minutes of purchase for a full refund. Apple's App Store, on the other hand, does not give refunds.
Among some of the other features of the Amazon Appstore are one-click purchasing, recommendations, and a deals section that offers discounted apps.
There's also a mobile app for the Amazon Appstore. It's available on a menu on the right-hand side of the page. Enter an email address or cell phone number into the widget and a download link will be sent to your device. Once the app is installed, you can download content from the Amazon Appstore directly to your Android-based device.
Many familiar, popular titles are available in the store such as Fruit Ninja, Shazam, and Call of Duty, all three of which are in Amazon's list of top 10 paid apps. There are also 70 apps for social networking, including Twitter's app. However, notably absent from this category is a Facebook app.
So why has Amazon decided to open its very own Appstore? There is speculation that Amazon is preparing to build its own Android-based tablet. However, Amazon has not commented on this rumor.
Regardless, the Amazon Appstore has been greeted with a generally positive response, according many reports. However, Amazon already has a hurdle to overcome with the new venture. Apple has reportedly filed a suit against Amazon to block their use of the term "App Store." At the same time, Microsoft is attempting to block Apple from trademarking the phrase on the grounds that it's too generic.