Friday, July 22, 2011

Amazon Appstore: How to install on HTC Inspire

I got my HTC Inspire 4G recently and am loving it. The first thing that I wanted to check was the ability to install non-android market apps on it. So, I picked Amazon appstore app to install. here is what I did.
  • Entered phone number in a textbox under Getting Started on Amazon Getting Started
  • I got an SMS immediately with a link to download appstore. I clicked on that and the download finished in a few seconds.
  • When I was about to install, I got an error saying "For security reasons apps from other sources are blocked"
Very disappointing. Android can't be like iPhone in terms of someone dictating me what I can install or not on MY PHONE. Since I bought the phone on Amazon, I went to their website for help. Amazon says, amazon appstore is available on HTC inspire 4G. I contacted them through this link. Immediately a representative calls me and says ATT has an update, that when pushed on to my phone, I'll be able to see "Unknown sources" option under Settings->Applications and be able to install appstore. I must say their customer service is awesome.

Now I call ATT customer care. First they put me in queue for couple of minutes before serving me. Then a robot says something that I'm remotely even interested. After entering a few details to identify myself, someone answers the call. He doesn't even understand the problem I have. He puts me on hold to ask someone if they understand my problem. After several minutes, he comes back and says my software version is the latest and I have to wait for next release to get any update. I told myself, Amazon can't be lying. So I asked to speak with his manager. I'm put on hold for another 5minutes. Finally, manager seem to understand the problem. She at least know that people had this problem in the past. I felt so relived when someone from ATT knew the problem I'm talking about. But she doesn't know how to resolve. She puts me on hold to contact another person who might be able to help me. after waiting for another 5minutes, she puts another person in conference call. He is the one I should have talked to in the first place. He immediately pushes an update in real time and I was able to install appstore while on the phone with him.

It took me 50 minutes of talking and waiting to get a damn update installed on my phone. The wait is worth. I got my amazon appstore installed and several other amazon apps.

It seems like very few people know what this update is. So if you need an update, escalate it and talk to more ATT representatives. I know its painful but sadly thats the way it works.

I don't understand why ATT by default push this update. Has it got anything to do with the rivalry between Google and Amazon appstores?