All About App Stores [Part 1]

The Motorola Xoom is a powerful device with some great built in features, but its functionality quickly becomes limited without the ability to install additional software applications. These apps excel at helping users accomplish tasks or get entertainment value from their mobile devices. There are multiple options out there for app discovery and downloading, read on to find out about them!

Finding and Downloading Apps

Android Market 
Android Market is the official Android app store, owned by Google. It comes preloaded on many Android devices, including the Xoom.  It is wildly popular – the download count from Android Market hit 10 billion in December 2011 – and it has more free apps than any other major app store, on any platform. There are a plethora of tablet-optimized apps (you can find tablet optimized apps by searching the Market for “tablet optimized” without quotes) and many of the apps designed for phones work well on the tablet form factor.

Android Market

One of the great features of Android Market is that the apps you purchase are usable across all of your Android devices that are capable of running it. This is handy for users of multiple devices, or even just for getting apps back after an equipment upgrade.

A huge selection, good purchase terms, and tons of free apps make Android Market the top provider of Android apps.

Availability: Preloaded on the Xoom

AppBrain
AppBrain is a more user-friendly interface for the Android Market. It doesn’t host its own apps, rather, it provides additional search criteria that allows for greater precision in finding and installing Market-hosted Android apps.

AppBrain

Once an app is selected in AppBrain, it will open the corresponding Android Market page for download.

A modern tablet-style interface with highly customizable search options makes AppBrain the best Market app alternative by far.

Availability: Android Market

Download AppBrain from Android Market

Amazon Appstore
The Amazon Appstore is a top competitor to the Android Market. It is only available as a third party download from Amazon (this requires special installation permission on your Xoom), and is not available via Android Market. Just for clarity's sake, the Amazon Appstore isn't better than Android Market. It gets bested by Android Market in app selection and is blown away by Android Market when comparing the number of free apps available. Also, apps purchased in the Amazon Appstore sync to a user's Amazon account, not her Google account. This forces users to use a adopt a second environment for updates and re-downloads. But, even with these issues, this app store does offer something that makes it well worth installing:

One Paid App, for Free, Every day!

That’s right! Each day, Amazon selects one app from its library of thousands of paid apps and provides it for download at no cost. You can't find that deal at Android Market!

Availability: Amazon Appstore Download Page

Download the Amazon Appstore from Amazon.com

Installing Amazon Appstore

As mentioned above, the Amazon Appstore is a non-Market application, so the installation process is a little different than the process for a Market app.

Quick Steps

1. Enable third party app installation (Settings -> Applications -> Check Unknown Sources)

2. Download and install the Amazon Appstore .apk here.

Detailed Steps

1. Go to the Amazon Appstore download page, and tap the Download Now button

2. Once the .apk downloads, tap the download complete notification that pops up in the lower right of the screen (see below)

3. If the Install Blocked dialog pops up, tap the settings button, and check the Unknown Sources box

4. Hit back to exit settings, and open Downloads (App Drawer -> Downloads). Tap on Amazon_Appstore-release.apk  to install the application.

Part 2 will take a quick look at some other alternative app stores. Stay tuned!