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Comment by spiffworks | Hacker News Reader

Its three. Crows can count that much.

When you need a count of app stores, don't ask a crow.

Let's see there's ... Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Android Marketplace, GetJar, various device manufacturers (Lenovo, Motorola, General Mobile), and various phone companies around the world. http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/12/30/the-ongoing-mess-of-andr...

There's probably at least a dozen, if not more.

So what's the problem? Android pundits normally champion Choice as one of Android's features, as opposed to the single store (without jailbreaking) available on iOS.

This sounds like a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't".

How many stores can you purchase Windows or Mac software from? That towers over the Android stores. Why should mobile be different?

Actually there's a massive difference. I'm not forced to buy software only from Dell just because I bought a Dell computer, or only from Verizon just because Verizon provides my Internet access. Or join the "HP Developer Program" and download the "HP SDK" just so I can sell my Windows app through the "HP App store" to someone using an HP laptop.

If all the app stores were just stores competing on a level playing field it would be a good thing, but they're obviously not. Most of these are not real "stores", they are schemes for extorting money from users and developers by removing (not enhancing) their ability to choose.

Uh you can sideload apps there Paco. Just like on Windows and Mac. All the Android app stores are purely optional.

I don't know about that there is an Intel appstore. http://appdeveloper.intel.com/en-us/

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