Kindle Fire Apps

Even though the Kindle Fire uses the Android operating system is doesn’t allow you to download apps from the Android Marketplace. Instead Amazon have set up their own Kindle app store which you’ll be pleased to hear carries virtually all the same apps as you can find on the Android Marketplace but with a few extra exclusive apps only available to Kindle owners.

This might sound like a bit of a let down because the Android Marketplace has well over 100,000 apps to download whereas the Kindle Store has around 16,000 but there is actually a good reason for this. The Kindle Fire is not a smartphone nor can it compete with the larger, more expensive tablets because it doesn’t have the same kind of hardware inside.

For example you can’t use any location aware service because there is no GPS, no motion sensitive apps because there’s no accelerometer and no camera apps because there isn’t a camera built in. Also, since Amazon have gone to great lengths to overhaul the user interface they don’t want people playing around with it too much so anything that is theme or wallpaper based or anything that wants root access is not available.

Some people think this is a drawback but it actually makes the lives of Kindle Fire owners much easier because you can have full confidence that every single app has been thoroughly tested for quality, compatibility and trustworthiness. Let’s face it, do we really need to choose from 400 different types of calculators!

In case you’re worried about the quality of the apps that will be available then fear not, all your favorite games, utilities and tools are available.

Most people are going to want to use their Kindle Fire as a handheld gaming device to play casual games and rest assured you can play all the great games like Angry Birds, Words with Friends, and Plants vs. Zombies to your heart’s content. What’s more, all the major gaming studios like Zynga, EA, Gameloft, PopCap and Rovio have signed up to offer their games via the Kindle Store so you’ll always have a fresh supply of new games to play each day.

You’ll also be able to download other apps like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, ESPN ScoreCenter, news apps from every major news stand and of course all your social media apps like Twitter and Facebook. You’re fully covered with a range of office type apps so if you do want to use your Kindle Fire for some basic productivity there is nothing stopping you here.

It’s very easy for developers to build apps for the Kindle Fire since it basically uses the Android operating system so all the big developers will be looking to port their apps to the Kindle Store in the near future. However, if you have your heart set on being able to use the Android Marketplace to download apps there are several hacks you can make to your Kindle Fire to enable this but be very careful because any modifications could turn your shiny device in to an expensive plastic brick.