Thanks to all for your replies!
Alas, I am still confused.
How is it that some pretty good applications seem to only exist on the Android Market? Take for example weather forecast applications like iMap Weather or Radar Now! - I have not found them anywhere besides AM.
How come?
Why has nobody made a full mirror of the free apps on AM and made them available as apk packages for download?
The one application which I miss most is the
al-Jazeera live application which seems to only exist on AM.
But then, I don't know if it uses flash. If yes, then the version of Andoid my Pocket Book IQ 701 with Android 2.0 probably won't run it :-(