Leaf, the distributor of HTC products in South Africa, has just announced via Twitter that the Paid Android Market will be available in South Africa soon.

To date South Africans only had access to all the free apps through the Android Market, but soon we will get to experience paid apps also.

The tweet by Leaf states that the paid-for Android Marketplace will be available to South Africans from the 2nd quarter of 2011. This will enable us to get the latest and greatest content on the Android Market charged straight to our credit cards.

The introduction of Paid Apps in the Android Market it not only just good news for local Android users, but this also opens up a whole new world for our local developers enabling them profit from building Android applications for the local market.

HTC makes some pretty cool Android phones, the HTC Desire being one of the best Android phones on the market and the day they announced the HTC Desire HD it was evident that they would have another winner in their lineup of Android phones.

Shortly after the release of the HTC Desire HD in October 2010 in other countries, I caught a glimpse of it on the MTN website where they already advertised it with certain packages, but I took it with a grain of salt as it was not published in any official MTN brochures.

The first time I saw the HTC Desire HD in a brochure was in November 2010, and since then this new HTC Android phone has been advertise with both MTN and Vodacom, but the question still remains is the HTC Desire HD actually available in South Africa.

I have heard of numerous people who are still waiting to get their hands on HTC Desire HD, having already waited more than 6-8 weeks despite the device being advertised by both MTN and Vodacom.

This weekend my wife went to upgrade her phone and one of the device she looked at was the HTC Desire HD, but upon enquiring about the availability of the device, the lady behind the counter quickly told me that they have no idea when they will actually get the device and that she has clients that are waiting for more than 8 weeks already.

Now my question is, and maybe Leaf can answer this, is the HTC Desire HD available in South Africa? And why do cellphone companies advertise products they clearly do not have stock of?

Do you know anybody who has a HTC Desire HD? How did he/she obtain it? Would love to hear.

The HTC Wildfire is HTC’s latest Android phone to hit the South African market. What will make the HTC Wildfire a success? The fact that it is a slimmed down version of the HTC’s high-end Desire smartphone.

Leaf confirmed that HTC Wildfire will be available in South Africa, and that we can expect it at the end of June 2010.

Although HTC introduced it to the market with the latest version of Android Froyo, the HTC Wildfire will instead ship with Android 2.1, same as the HTC Desire is running.

Some things users can expect from the HTC Wildfire include:

-          Android 2.1 Éclair
-          HTC Sense (UI)- 7 Screens and true customization
-          Friendstream- ( aggregates all you Facebook, Twitter and Flickr feeds on one screen )
-          Application Sharing
-          Supports MS Exchange
-          Google maps- with street view.
-          Android Market- 1000’s of applications to download.
-          5MP camera with Flash – photo face tagging & upload
-          528Mhz processor.
-          TFT LCD capacitive touch screen

The HTC Wildfire is aimed at the youth market and are expected to retail for allot less than its bigger brother the HTC Desire. South African can expect the HTC Wildfire end of June 2010.

Earlier this year at the at the World Mobile Congress HTC released a bunch of Android phones, two of these included the HTC Desire and the HTC Legend. I just received feedback from Leaf that South Africa will indeed have these phones and maybe sooner than we think.

The HTC Desire and HTC Legend is set to be available in the first week of April in South Africa. Leaf confirmed that both devices will be available from all the telco channels, and the devices will ship with Android 2.1.

Interesting facts about the HTC Desire:

Speed and Great Visual Experience
With the 1GHz chipset, the HTC Desire offers quicker access to applications, maps, videos and more importantly a faster browsing experience. Proof point… Almost 2x faster than the iPhone 3GS, 18% faster than Nexus One for browsing; smart zoom and built in flash player.

Latest HTC Sense
Friendstream, stay close.
Discover the unexpected through HTC Sense, e.g. HTC news.
Better user experience.
Proof point…Latest version of HTC Sense

Best High End Android Experience
Thousands of applications available through Android Market
Great experience of Google Services at your fingertips
A bright wide screen visual experience
Proof point…Latest Android platform, Fast image processing power, AMOLED screen; and seamless synchronization with exchange.

The HTC Desire features a 1 GHz SnapDragon Chipset, a WVGA AMOLED screen, Full Sync with MS exchange and Media synchronization with PC just to mention a few things.

Keep an eye out for the HTC Desire and HTC Legend to hit South African early in April.