Not Available in YOUR App Store?
I watched the recent Apple iPhone commercial, the one featuring Loopt that promised to keep me in stronger, better, faster contact with all my similarly teched-out friends, and immediately fired my iPhone to download it.
But guess what? It didn’t show up in the App Store. Dieter was kind enough to send me a direct link, so I clicked on that, and know what happened? I got a pop-up telling me Loopt wasn’t available in the Canadian App Store.
So, either we Canucks have no friends to stay in contact with, Loopt has yet to expand their offering to our frozen shores, or Apple didn’t bother to make a commercial with wider appeal than AT&T’s network coverage (or all of the above?)
In a global village, is it odd that an App isn’t just an App, and often medieval licensing rights prevent real parity in services?
For our international readers, any other Apps you’ve been unable to get due simply to where you live? Any Americans ever come across an App you couldn’t get?
November 10th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I think the micro surface app might be the same, as in the UK me and my friend have been unable to locate it even when 2 or 3 websites have reviewed it
November 10th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
’tis true of the UK too. Some apps only make sense in one country but that’s not the policy at play – there are plenty of apps in the UK store that really are pretty useless to anyone here (US TV listings for example). I have a suspicion (probably based on something I read) that the developer, rather than Apple, gets to decide on availability.
Btw, any chance TiPb might practice what it preaches and globalise its competitions?
November 10th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I live in Romania and I can’t install Google Earth. It’s more than annoying no to be able to, isn’t the Earth the same here?
November 10th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
no Games in the South African app store, and tons of other apps aren’t available. every day I click links to useful apps only to see that very pop-up. highly annoying
November 10th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I searched for an app called trains today that gives live info regarding the uk rail service only to be told it was not available in the UK appstore. WTF?
November 10th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
In the us Subway Lite was not available for a while… It is now…
November 10th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Actually, there are a lot of apps blocked in my country(PE). If forced to have a 2 accounts one for free apps in US, and other account at my country for $$ apps.
For example, the radio apps, maybe its for some policies, and its ok.
BUT, why not bring the updates for apps in all countries?… Connected from iphone: US Store: 11 updates PE Store: 0 updates
November 10th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Several Apps not avalable in the Dutch AppStore
November 10th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
There was one other Loopt user in Barcelona when I visited– maybe he got his app in the US though.
I imagine some applications like Pandora have to be US only because of the licensing restrictions on music. (interestingly however– Pandora mobile worked when I was in Spain even though the site wouldn’t.)
November 10th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
It’s a similar case with tethering: AT&T prohibits it and everyone has to suffer – including users in Canada for which it’s perfectly legal to tether with their Rogers/Fido 6GB data plan.
November 10th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I am pretty sure the developer gets to choose where his apps are available.
November 10th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Plenty of apps not available in Australia.
November 10th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Exactly the same problem with loopt – not available in the UK. What annoys me is the fact that Apple advertises top apps on its home page but they’re not available in my store. As Marcol says, there are a lot of US location apps in the UK store (usually traffic camera or gas station apps) and I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve emailed developers about diabetes apps that don’t use UK units! It does annoy me when apps are clearly aimed at US users – it’s as if the rest of the world doesn’t count! By the way, the micro surface app certainly was available in the UK as I’ve got it. Finally, I agree that TiPB competitions should be open to all countries.
November 10th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I’m still waiting for the official Last.fm app to be available in Belgium … up til now … it’s a no go …
November 10th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Pandora is not available in Canada either, but at least we have LastFm. As far as tethering; I agree, AT&T shouldn’t have control over the App Store offerings in Canada, needless to say, PDANet was my only option to use up the other 5GBs I was paying for but not using.
November 10th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
just create a us account for free apps. Australia has most of the us apps besides some radio and social ones
November 10th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
same in Greece with a lot of apps including sadly last.fm.on the other hand thought they haven’t bothered to give us a Greek keyboard….0
November 10th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Like Bruce, I’m in South Africa we have only a small section of the apps, this sucks !! No games, No Google Earth, not many of the cool apps. I also have 2 iTunes a/c (paid here and then another for free apps from another store) but this proves a bit of a nightmare to get keep current with updates. Seems a stupid arrangement, I’d rather have all apps and then decide if one is relevant to me.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:39 am
If you’re looking for a free app to connect friends with your location in Canada and the US check out zhiing. zhiing will be available to the UK after the first of the year and Europe. zhiing currently works on iPhone and Blackberry.
After the 19th of November, Nokia N-Series and in January Android and Windows Mobile will be supported. You can send messages with locations from the desktop too with the Firefox and IE add-on. zhiing is new but worth a look.
November 11th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Here in germany it’s perfectly legal to tether but since AT&T does not allow it in the US we all have to suffer! WTF?!?!
November 11th, 2008 at 10:30 am
The italian App Store has almost everything, except for apps like Loopt of course, Pandora, AOL Radio and MLB at bat. Shortly after the launch I created a second account on the Us store and the gift cards sold on ebay can be a great solution.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
I’m from India and majorly upset that a whole bunch of apps are not available in the India Itunes store, case in point the Google app and Google Earth. And of course, we still arent able to biy music here. Sad.
November 11th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Same thing happened to me today! After watching the loopt commercial on apple.com, I have decided to try it out.. But in the Austrian store it is unfortunately also not yet available
November 12th, 2008 at 12:16 am
We in India can’t get Shazam, Google Earth and many more. I have personally come across at least 10 apps which are not available in India.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I’m a Canadian living in the states and I’ve come across this many times as my iTunes account is linked to the Canadian store. I’ve just created an account linked to the US store and when I come across this issue I just login via that account, download the app, login back to my Canadian account and sync the app. So if an app is for a country you can’t access just create an account for that country and you’re good to go.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Actually I forgot about the whole billing address part of it which I have billing addresses and credit cards in both countries. So this method won’t work unless you have multiple billing addresses as well. Sorry for the waste of space….
November 30th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION:
Go onto iTunes store, at the bottom of the page change the location to whatever the app you want to download is based in, then find that app, and click buy app, a message should pop up saying this app isnt available in this country, press ok to be taken to your local app store (something along those lines), press ok but then stop it from loading by pressing the little x by the loading bit, then click buy app again and it should download
This worked for me on windows, I discovered it by accident.
December 18th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
i found a free guitar app called PlayGuitar and its not available in canada or america does anyone know where it might be located???? or another free guitar app…not tuner??????
January 1st, 2009 at 9:49 pm
This cool app called Memory Stick that is free for a limited time, not available in the states.
January 22nd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
I checked out imExchange (with imTasks and imNotes) last week, and now this week, I’m told its not available in the iTunes U.S. store.
August 2nd, 2009 at 10:48 pm
No Google in Argentina either. Pandora I understand, but Google?
October 2nd, 2009 at 10:57 pm
where are you getting your information from, jeronimo? there IS google in argentina. try google.com.ar