Local Android Market details

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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Last week Leaf International Communications, distributors for the HTC brand in South Africa, confirmed that the Android Market would be available locally in August.

Bjorn Gohre, Product Manager at Leaf, revealed today that the target date for local release is August 8.

According to Gohre HTC gave Leaf the go ahead some time ago to build a new ROM for Android devices in South Africa which contained the Android Market update. When the new version was completed it was signed off by Vodacom and MTN as being acceptable for local markets and was sent back to HTC Global for verification.

Gohre has confirmed that the HTC verification has been concluded and that the ROM has been sent to Google for TA (Type Approval), a process which will take between 7 and 14 working days.

As yet, Leaf has not received any further communication from Google regarding the status of the TA but has revealed that when the new ROM has been approved the Android Market will become available. Both Leaf and Google are currently “gearing for the 8th of August” said Gohre.

Owing to the fact that the Android operating system was developed by Google there are a number of checks and balances that the new ROM needs to undergo both with Google and HTC before it is signed off. Gohre added that this process is standard and will be applied to any Android devices released in the future. 

Android users will be able to access the new update by taking their devices in to the Leaf head office, regional offices or retail outlets. It has been confirmed that the phone’s ROM will be flashed and returned to factory settings. All Open Market applications, a local application platform which Leaf released in place on the Android Market, will be lost.

Upon switching on the phone users will be prompted to enter a Google ID and will subsequently have all Google services on their devices updated including access to the Android Market.

Currently all applications will be free. Paid applications will not be available due to a lack of a “vetting authority regarding the content that gets uploaded to the market place” said Gohre.

SA Android Market discussion