Amazon Appstore Offering “Test Drive” For Select Android Apps [Amazon Offers Up Virtual Machine, Allows Users To Try (Online) Android Apps Before They Buy]

Posted on TFTS by Robert Nelson on Monday, 28. March 2011 under: Mobile/Cell Phones, PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets

The Amazon Appstore officially launched last week and with it came the exciting news of Angry Birds Rio being available for free and the disappointing news that AT&T customers were not going to be able to take advantage just yet.

But with that, it seems that there is also another nice little feature. And one that has gone unmentioned up until this point — the ability to test drive apps. Yup, Amazon is offering the ability to check out the app before you actually make a purchase. Though, with that comes a few limitations.

First, the test driving is only available for those in the US. And second, at this point the apps available for a test drive are noted as being in the “hundreds” which may fall short of the hundreds of thousand available, but still sounds like a decent option to have available. That said, from what we can see, there are only 20 available at this time. Moving on though, it seems likely that the number available for a test drive will increase over time.

At present the test drive apps are noted as being “some of our favorites” and include the obvious from Amazon such as the Kindle and Amazon MP3 as well as others such as Audible, Connect 4, Huffington Post, Sodoku, Flight Frenzy Deluxe and more. Basically, when browsing the Amazon Appstore you will see a link titled “Test Drive Now” for those apps that have it available and then “you control the app with your mouse and experience it like you would on your phone.”

Bottom line, click the test drive link and you get a new pop-up window with a mock Android smartphone that allows you to test the app. Granted, using a mouse is probably not the exact same as holding a phone in your hand and using your finger on a touchscreen, but it should be enough to give you a good look at the features. Otherwise, the test drive allows for both portrait and landscape layouts and offers up to 30 minutes of play time for each app.