Curious about alternatives to the Google Play Store (formerly the Android Market) for reading app reviews and downloading content? Read on as we explore some of the alternatives.
Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of Android Enthusiasts—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.
The Question
Android Enthusiasts reader Captain Toad is curious about alternatives to the Google Play Store (aka Android Market):
So where else can shoppers go?
I know that there are at least two others: SlideME and AppBrain which I have looked at and seem useful but which ones do you use and why?
The Answers
Android Enthusiasts contributor Stefano offers not only a long list of alternative markets but what’s interesting about each of them:
Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.
Until, well, yesterday, the ‘official’ market would not have been available from your PC (meaning: on a PC web browser). Now it is, with a neat push-to-your-phone one click installation that is taking away one of the advantages of the competition (see appbrain). The alternative markets, though, have still their peculiarities… I’ll make a short summary but don’t expect it to highlight all of the differences. Some markets (eg. andspot) do not offer very specific features to users, but try to gather developers by offering advanced features such as easy stats.
[Also] a lot of review/forum sites will link to one or more of these markets, eg androidtapp or androidpit androlib.
I suggest you click on some of these links and see for yourself if the look/applications suit your style!
Various sources and in particular this thenextweb.com article.
