Just a day ago we reported that Amazon was automatically redirecting all web requests for market.android.com to their own Amazon Appstore, thanks to a hidden utility file called MarketIntentProxy.apk. Presumably Amazon wanted to steer Kindle Fire users to the curated Amazon Appstore since some applications that exist in the Android Market are not available in the Amazon Appstore, and thus wouldn’t be directly supported on the Kindle Fire.
While it would offer the user the best experience as far as lessening the likelihood that some rogue app would cause trouble on the Kindle Fire, it presumes that all Kindle Fire users are fine just using the Amazon Appstore. Not all Kindle Fire users want to be restricted to just the Amazon ecosystem, and should be able to check out the Android Market if they like, even just to browse app availability, at the very least.
(photo credit: Kevin Tofel)
Well, with the 6.2.1 Kindle Fire update that just became available, Kevin Tofel of GigaOM Mobile confirmed that Amazon is not redirecting web requests to the Android Market anymore. So at the very least, Kindle Fire users can browse the Android Market website and see what it has to offer. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to associate a Kindle Fire with a Google account that can be used with the Android Market, so installing apps from the Android Market is still not really an option, but at least you can now browse the Android Market to see what you might be missing!
Via GigaOM Mobile
