The online retailer announced Wednesday that developers could begin submitting apps for distribution in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain later this summer. Further global expansion is planned in the near future, Amazon said in a release.
Amazon says its Appstore has tens -- not hundreds -- of thousands of apps, suggesting it's relatively small compared to Apple's App Store, which contains more than 650,000 iOS apps, and Google Play, which offers around half a million Android apps and is around the same age as Amazon's.
Still, it's an important distribution portal for many developers, particularly those whose apps are designed to run on Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet, which so far has only been sold in the U.S. If Amazon is expanding its Appstore to Europe, perhaps the Kindle Fire will be making its way there soon as well.