Android App Market coming to South Africa
Posted in Mobile on July 1st, 2009 by Ronald Bach – Tags: Android, App, Application, Cupcake, Google, HTC, Leaf, Market, MTN, Vodacom
Ronald
Local HTC distributor Leaf International Communications have confirmed that the Android App Market will soon be available in South Africa.
Up to now the Android Market has not been available on the first two Android-powered handsets to hit South Africa – the HTC Dream (on MTN) and the HTC Magic (on Vodacom) – much to the frustration of local Android handset owners and Android app developers alike.
Details are still very limited and more will be revealed in the next few days and weeks as Google puts the final details in place but this news does pose some interesting questions:
1) Will we see a phased rollout of the Android Market similar to Australia where the Market was launched some months after Android phones became available and only free apps could be downloaded? Or, with Google’s big mobile push into Africa , could we see both free and paid apps become available? Could Google Checkout (the payment mechanism used for paid apps in the Android Market) in South Africa be closer than we think?
2) How will MTN and Vodacom make the Android Market available on local handsets? Some forum discussion suggests each device will be sent a SMS with instructions on how to download the Android Market directly onto the device. Alternatively owners will be able to visit their nearest customer care centre and have it installed.
3) Will MTN use a similar process – as per (2) above - to allow HTC Dream owners to update their phones from Android version 1.1 to the newer 1.5 (cupcake) version which is already available on the HTC Magic? The Dream released by MTN seems to be the only Android phone still on 1.1 worldwide.
4) How will the launch of the Android App Market in South Africa affect the Leaf Open Market?
5) Will we see a rush of locally produced Android apps (on both the Android Market and Open Market) as more Android handsets become available and developers identify and build relevant, useful and enjoyable applications to sell to local Android phone owners?
6) Google announced in May that at least 18 phone models will be using Android before the end of 2009 worldwide. The Samsung I7500 looks like it will be the next Android phone to launch. When will the Samsung I7500 and other forthcoming Android phones be released in South Africa?
Send us your thoughts!
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July 1st, 2009 1:35 pm
Arrantly the market will be available in the next two weeks for the Magic. Leaf will SMS every Magic owner to give them details, which are either download the ROM from leaf.co.za and ROM the phone oyurself or take it in to a Vodacare centre who will flash the ROM for you with the updated ROM.
July 1st, 2009 1:38 pm
I just received my HTC Dream, and I cannot download or install third party apps on it.
The whole idea is it’s an open source platform. Yet we’re denied Adroid Market. I can understand the paid apps being delayed, but what about the free stuff?
I am so disappointed I want to return the device. Without apps it’s a useless novelty.
July 1st, 2009 3:21 pm
This is excellent news!
July 1st, 2009 6:15 pm
Symbian been losing the race to RIM’s Blackberry OS and Apple’s OSX. It seems Android’s timing couldn’t be better. The next two years will be very interesting for the mobile networks, South Africa’s large connected population as well as open source development companies.
This report http://tinyurl.com/mnvvdm - “considers the development of the open source mobile Operating
Systems (OS) from the not for profit organisation Symbian Foundation (formed originally by Nokia) and Android (formed by Google) which are vying to be the open source smart phone mobile OS of choice for a range of handset
manufacturers and mobile network operators.”
July 2nd, 2009 12:41 am
[...] The rest is here: 20fourLabs » Android App Market coming to South Africa [...]
July 2nd, 2009 1:13 pm
Disappointed - Have you tried Open Market? Go to http://www.leaf.co.za/openmarket on your device. Those apps should definitely work on your Dream. Stii’s recent post also includes some other apps you can download directly - see http://stii.co.za/technology/the-magical-htc-magic/ (also check that your application settings have been set to allow non-market apps)
Nick - Google is making a big open mobile OS push into Africa and I particularly find their partnership with MIT AITI where they are mentoring students and supplying Android curriculum materials very exciting. Check out this post on the new ‘Official Africa Google Blog’ http://google-africa.blogspot.com/2009/06/university-outreach-in-kenya.html and http://aiti.mit.edu/blog/
July 17th, 2009 1:05 pm
I don’t think the market is going to be launched in SA. Got an email from Leaf:
Thank you for contacting HTC Support
Android Market is only available in 17 Countries globally & SA is not one of them. You can access http://www.leaf.co.za/openmarket for the SA version (openmarket).
Kind Regards
Shavaan Datadin
Technical Support
July 19th, 2009 9:06 pm
Has there been any further news two weeks later?
July 20th, 2009 9:28 am
eishman - follow the discussion here: http://bit.ly/Vtw6r (Android in Africa Google Group)
July 20th, 2009 7:44 pm
Thanks, on my way
July 23rd, 2009 5:00 pm
[...] tweetmeme_url = ‘http://www.matthewbuckland.com/?p=859′;tweetmeme_source = ‘matthewbuckland’; As predicted by Ron Bach on the 20FourLabs blog, the Android market will soon be launched [...]
October 19th, 2009 10:46 pm
I have T-Mobile. I’m getting my paycheck next week so I wanna buy an iphone, since the locked ones are cheaper on ebay than the unlocked ones, I wanted to buy a locked iphone on ebay for like 200 dollars. And I have a friend, whose sister knows how to unlock iphones and has done it in the past. So if I bought the locked iphone got my friends sister to unlock it, put my t-mobile sim card in, will it work?
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February 18th, 2010 1:27 pm
Is this available now?
February 22nd, 2010 10:59 am
Yaarik - only free apps are currently available in South Africa.
March 30th, 2010 4:31 pm
Hi guys,
Ive got the HTC hero and Android market on it, when will we have pay apps here in South Africa? Alot of the free apps are awsome but limited and require one to buy full versions?
Does anyone know when that will be available.
Cheers.