This story has been making the rounds of tech blogs today, and it’s interesting to watch the reactions.

First, the story:

Amazon announced today that developers can now submit their apps for distribution in nearly 200 countries.

As I’ve said before, I think competition is a good thing, and the more competition Google has with its apps, the better it is for consumers. Android phones are doing well in other countries, and it’s a logical move for Amazon to tap into that market.

So much for the story. Now for the interesting reactions:

One of the Android blogs was quite lukewarm about it, and obviously has never looked at the Amazon app store. They made the point that Amazon apps will be made available for smartphones since Kindle Fires aren’t available in many of the countries. That’s nothing new. Amazon’s app store pre-dated the Kindle Fire, and their apps are still available for smartphones and other tablets. I run a couple of apps from their store on my Nexus 7.

Pro e-book blogs welcomed the move and see this as an indication that the Kindle Fire is going to become available in lots more countries. While I think it’s likely to be the case, I do wonder how they will fare in countries with small numbers of e-books in native languages.

We’ll see. One thing’s certain: It’s an exciting time for long-time e-book and mobile devices lovers. Changes and new developments every day!

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