Why can not I purchase the application of another country?

Because you have access to the store for only the country your Apple ID is associated with.

In order to have an account in a given country, you need to 1) have a valid billing address in that country, 2) have a credit card billed to that address or an iTunes Gift Card purchased in that country and 3) to be physicallly located in that country at the time of purchase.

It is an old thread but comes up near the top during a search, so...

Only would like to point out that item 3) of Meg St._Clair's posting above does not appear to be applicable any longer - at least in Asia.

I did not notice any restrictions during my travels across Asia in the past year, nor did I have any issues (apart from Apple seeking confirmation) in setting up an account with Credit Card Billing for a gifted iPad back in Europe whilst 'physically' in Asia.

After a series of tightening measures a few years back, system appears to slowly get more flexibel again nowadays 😉

Meg's posting is still absolutely valid and correct. To use any country's iTunes Store, you must have a valid payment method and billing address in the country, and per the terms of use must be in the country. While Apple does not always enforce that restriction technically, they do expressly prohibit such access in the Terms of Use to which you agreed, e.g.:

The Service is available to you only in the United Kingdom. You agree not to use or attempt to use the Service from outside this location. iTunes may use technologies to verify your compliance.

If you choose to violate those terms, that's up to you. Apple would be within their rights to cut off your account, though I've not heard of them doing so. They do usually refuse any sort of technical help should you encounter problems when trying to access an iTunes Store from outside of its country.

Regards.

varjak paw wrote:

If you choose to violate those terms, that's up to you. Apple would be within their rights to cut off your account, though I've not heard of them doing so. They do usually refuse any sort of technical help should you encounter problems when trying to access an iTunes Store from outside of its country.

There's some anecdotal evidence that Apple sometimes prevents downloads from one country's store if the user is in another country.

varjak paw wrote:

...To use any country's iTunes Store, you must have a valid payment method and billing address in the country.....

I did not dispute that - binding Credit Card and Store to a single country is an unfortunate general limitation in any online store I came across since its introduction 5 years or so ago.

What has fortunately eased up is the second requirement you cite from the terms "..must be in the country".

In a more and more globalized world that's just backwoods.

As backwoods as assuming that home & billing address country must be the same as the country you are currently working in, sorry.

There is a horde of tens of millions of migrating Expats & workers here in Asia, add to that a few tens of thousand US soldiers and as soon as you cross one of the many borders you risk loosing your account ?

[not to forget those are the ones who actually earn real money and sent it back home so their loved ones can by iPhones & iPads ;-) ]

Luckily Apple appears to have eased up internally on that backwoods requirement, never understood why it was introduced in the first place. It certainly did not seem to have a major effect on the fraud statistics, only causing inconveniences for the evergowing number of ppl like me moving around with the job.