It’s an exciting day for Europeans, with the recent launch of Amazon’s Appstore in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Amazon’s Appstore is a curated app market for Android, and has been available only in the U.S. since its launch over a year ago.

Known as simply the Amazon Appstore in the U.S., it comes in different names for European users. In Italy, Germany and France, users will be using the “App-Shop”; in Spain, the Appstore will be called “Tienda Apps”, and only in the U.K. it will remain with the name “Amazon Appstore for Android”.

With the launch of the Appstore in Europe, customers in these countries will now have access to Amazon’s Free App of the Day promotions, and other features such as personalized recommendations, user reviews, and Amazon’s GameCircle service, which is similar to Apple’s GameCenter.

Apps downloaded or purchased from Amazon’s Appstore can be used across Android devices, just as with apps from Google Play. To start using the Appstore, you need to download it as a standalone app, which you can do here. Read the instructions on this page carefully before installing, to make sure the Appstore works correctly. After installation, you will have the alternative app market ready to use on your device.

With most of Amazon’s services available only in the U.S. at this time, it’s too soon to tell if this means an even bigger change is coming or not. Nevertheless, it sure is a step in the right direction for Amazon’s European customers.

Source: Amazon press release