I stumbled over this rather nifty list of 15 Alternatives to Android Market (aka Android Play) the other day, and it’s rather cool. The obvious ones are all there, like the Amazon App Store and Getjar, but there are some I’ve never heard of such as PandaApp Wandoujia and Appoke.

Why would you need an alternative, I hear you ask? Well simple. How about when you are using someone else’s phone for whatever reason and you don’t want to add a new Google account to their phone (which you can only delete by resetting the handset to factory clean), but you need an app urgently? Or you’re using a phone and don’t want it tied to Google at all (for example it’s a temporary loaner or evaluation unit)?

There are probably lots of other scenarios, including finding apps which are not allowed on the official market, but suffice to say, having a solid set of alternative markets you can use in an emergency is definitely a sensible move.

The list is missing one of my favourites though, which is Appbrain. It features a great instant download tool, a nice search function and a very clear interface. Anyway check them all out, and if you know of any more, pop them into the comments.