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The company's US store has begun selling a selection of tax software for Windows, but promises that the "offerings will continue to grow in number". A commitment backed by its plan to begin selling OS X downloads.

While Amazon is far from the first company to sell software downloads, its huge web presence and ability to market downloads in other parts of its store, give it a commanding base to exploit.

The new service is also supported by the Amazon Media Library, which stores a record of all the software purchased so it can be reinstalled at any time.

A free sample download is available from the new downloads section of the Amazon site.