Apple half-adds 40+ countries to iTunes Store, App Store

Jeremy Horwitz
By Jeremy Horwitz  - Editor-in-Chief

In an unusual half-expansion of the iTunes Store, Apple today added over 40 countries to the iTunes Store’s pull-down list of international stores, yet directed their users to English-language versions of the App Store rather than localized stores with traditional iTunes content. Many of the countries, including China, Korea, Lebanon, Russia, and Vietnam, notably lack significant English-speaking populations.

A brief skim of the App Store pages for these countries suggests that they are still in the process of being built, and may well be localized only as the iPhone and iPod touch expand in popularity overseas. The limited versions of the App Store sometimes lack for “Top Apps” and other featured content sidebars, while the absence of traditional iTunes Stores apparently reflects a lack of purchasable music, video, and other non-interactive downloadable content in those countries.

The complete list of new iTunes App Store countries is:

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

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Jeremy Horwitz
By Jeremy Horwitz Editor-in-Chief
Jeremy Horwitz was the Editor-in-Chief at iLounge. He has written over 5,000 articles and reviews for the website and is one of the most respected members of the Apple media. Horwitz has been following Apple since the release of the original iPod in 2001. He was one of the first reviewers to receive a pre-release unit of the device, and his review helped put iLounge on the map as a go-to source for Apple news.