Amazon’s MP3 download store will be landing on Android handsets soon. The online giant’s MP3 download service will help take the fight to Apple’s all-powerful iTunes.

Amazon MP3 has been teamed up with Google’s mobile OS in the US since Android first appeared in October 2008, but UK users have been left out in the cold until now.

However, the latest release of Android – 2.1 Eclair – comes with Amazon MP3 baked right in, and is set to be rolled out as an update to most Android phones in the weeks to come.

And of course it will be tucked into the feature set of the Google Nexus One, the first handset to run Android 2.1 natively, when it launches on Vodafone over the next few months.

Like its PC-based counterpart, Amazon MP3 opens the door to more than nine million tracks, all available to purchase and download in MP3 format, rather than iTunes’ more restrictive AAC.

The Amazon Android app hasn’t made an overly huge dent in the iTunes crown so far in the US, but its existence is one more string to Google’s increasingly powerful mobile bow.

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