Android apps in the Developing world

Amazon has been doing some really interesting things with technology in the last 5 years.  Some part of still me thinks of them as an online book store, but many of their own technology products have been consistently innovative and unique.  Until the kindle, most of those like the EC2 (virtual servers on an hourly rate) and S3 (pay by use data storage) were only things a geek could love.  I was stunned recently to find out about their cloud player which lets you upload music to the web and stream it to any device with a network connection and Adobe Air support.  While it currently only works in the US, if it survives legal challenges, it could turn out to be pretty significant.  The recently announced appstore for android might seem like that not a big of an issue since there are other options for getting Android apps.  However there is one very significant issue which as ramifications in the international context.  The Google market is tied to providers while the amazon appstore is tied to customer accounts.  If I swap SIM cards in my mobile phone, I see different applications available in the Google market.  On the other hand, the appstore seems to be tied to my credit card.  In Bangladesh, paid apps don’t show up in the mobile version of the market, but they do show up in the app store.  Net net that means I can actually buy applications here.