Some apps not in Canadian iTunes store

[BobF4321]

I have noticed that a few highly-rated apps are not available in the Canadian iTunes store. My question is: why? I would like to be able to use those apps while travelling in the U.S. Will I be forced to get a U.S. iTunes store account?

 

[skubish]

I have noticed that a few highly-rated apps are not available in the Canadian iTunes store. My question is: why? I would like to be able to use those apps while travelling in the U.S. Will I be forced to get a U.S. iTunes store account?

Pretty sure the developer decides which countries the apps are available in. Which ones are missing?

 

[kmkl]

The reason some are missing is because they are location/country sensitive.

For Example whrrl. It only works in the US, so no reason to host it in the Canadian Store.

Shame though...

 

[Dipdip]

International flavors of the eBay app would have been nice. I heard it's only in the US, tsk tsk

 

[BobF4321]

Pretty sure the developer decides which countries the apps are available in. Which ones are missing?

A couple of examples are radio apps: Pandora Radio and AOL Radio.
I'm sure it's a copyright issue, but shouldn't they blocking streaming from outside the U.S. instead of blocking downloading the app from outside the U.S.?

 

[mrkgoo]

Scrabble and Sudoku (EA) aren't available on the NZ store.

 

[Dipdip]

Do any of the BoxOffice or movie times apps work for you guys in Canada? I can't enter a postal code with letters...

 

[panamajack]

Aurora Feint: The Beginning, a promising (and free?) game ain't available either. Boo.

 

[wolfshades]

Aurora Feint: The Beginning, a promising (and free?) game ain't available either. Boo.

I was able to download it the day after I got my iPhone in Toronto. I don't see it there now though. Guess you have to be quick. 🙂

....or....the developer may have taken it off to have it fixed. There is at least one problem with it that I can see. I know they were trying to get it updated.

 

[panamajack]

Thanks Wolf.

Is the game good ? Can't beat the price I guess, but the news about how it gathers user contact information is a little worrying.

http://macenstein.com/default/archives/1523

 

[wolfshades]

I like the game a lot and have ran the battery power down a few times now just playing it. The fact that it's free makes it appealing too. I noticed the community feature described in the link you posted. Not too worried, as I keep my black ops spy information on my PalmPilot anyway. 🙂

One of the creators of that game runs this (Macrumors) site I believe. Pretty sure he opposed the idea of spam - which would be the only real use for that contact information other than what's stated in the article.

 

[hinchesk]

The list of decent apps missing in the iTunes Canada store so far is:
- Pandora Radio
- AOL Radio
- eBay
- Google mobile

Anyone have others worth mentioning?

 

[quigleybc]

Aurora Feint: The Beginning, a promising (and free?) game ain't available either. Boo.

it's in the Canada store

i should know, i've had to download it like ten times because it kept crashing

 

[FedoraNetworks]

- Pandora Radio
- AOL Radio
- eBay
- Google mobile
- Skype
- loopt
- MLB at bat
- PlayGuitar

All not available in Canada. Anyone Else have anything to add?

 

[cpnotebook80]

i just create a free us itunes account and use the US apps.

 

[fishkorp]

The streaming music apps are due to licensing issues. It's a big, big mess when dealing with licensing of streaming music and can get VERY expensive. The app I worked on was going to be US only simply for that reason. It gets a lot more complicated and expensive when you open it up to other countries. Especially with an app like Pandora where everyone isn't listening to the same thing at the same time. If someone with the popularity of Pandora opened up their site and apps to everyone around the world they'd be looking at millions of dollars a month in licensing fees alone, not to mention the bandwidth and hosting costs. That's part of the reason they were going to call it quits if the new licensing pricing model was approved (which it wasn't).

Just curious, does the Pandora website work in Canada? Or is that blocked too?

And Skype is due to some legal issue, Skype issued a statement about it.