Amazon Appstore for Android – Put This in Your Tablet and Smoke It

Today Amazon officially pulled the veil off of their new Appstore for Android. Check it out; it’s pretty sweet. And if you hurry you can get a free download of Angry Birds Rio.

In fact, Amazon says they are going to offer one paid app for free each day.

You can install the Amazon Android app on tablets like the Nextbook, PocketBook IQ, Nook Color (rooted/ROM), as well as android phones. It seems to work on devices running Android 2.0 and up. Not sure of the official versions supported. I tried and it would not work on Android 1.5.

What I like about the app is that Amazon makes the whole process much easier than dealing with smaller app stores with questionable quality control and infrequent updates for the newest available versions of apps.

For instance, you can now easily get the latest version of the Kindle Android app just by going to Amazon. The Kobo eReading app is also available. It’s nice to see Amazon isn’t blocking the EPUB competition.

Your purchased and free apps get tied to your Amazon.com account and are available to all your Android devices at once. And unlike the Google app store that is limited to only devices with Android Market access, the Amazon app store is open to the wider variety of tablets and phones that aren’t allowed to have Android Market access per Google’s guidelines.

Another smart move by Amazon is they show and offer all their Android apps at Amazon.com, not just from within the app. This way you can browse and buy apps from your web browser and then the next time you turn on your Android device and tap the Amazon Android App you get prompted to download and install the new apps—it’s like Whispernet for Android.

Amazon is also making it so that users can “Test Drive” apps in a web browser before buying them. From the press release:

“Test Drive lets customers truly experience an app before they commit to buying. It is a unique, new way to shop for apps,” says Paul Ryder, vice president of electronics for Amazon.com. “Our customers have told us that the sheer number of apps available can make it hard to find apps that are high quality and relevant to them. We’ve spent years developing innovative features that help customers discover relevant products. By applying these features – plus new ones like Test Drive – we’re aiming to give customers a refreshing app shopping experience.”

With all this new Android action, it’s just a matter of time before Amazon releases a tablet of their own.

Visit the Getting Started with the Amazon Appstore page over at Amazon to get the app. They will send the APK download to your phone or tablet.

Oh, and a couple caveats, the Amazon Appstore is only available to customers in the United States, and AT&T does not support the purchase of applications from the Amazon Appstore for Android.