Restrict Android app to an operator

Question

Does anyone know if it is possible to limit the distribution of an Android app to a specific telecom operator in a specific country? for example if I want to sell my app to Verizon customers only? Thanks!

Frederic

Answer 1

see http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss/msg/ee236fbfb97a3837

in which poster "TreKing" writes:

You would lose that bet =). In the developer console, where you set the country your app shows up in, if you uncheck all countries, you get a list of countries to opt in to. If you then click a country, you can select the carriers within that country.

As usual dealing with the Developer Console, this is unmarked and completely non-intuitive, but it's there.

Answer 2

Verizon has its own "sub-store" in the Android marketplace for Android apps (as far as I can tell), and they're also supposedly coming out with their own app store by the end of the year. Here's the sign-up page:

http://promo.verizon.com/how2kit/concept_submission.aspx

In general, I believe that the only way to limit distribution of an app to a specific carrier is to use that carrier's app store (if they have one).

Update: I'm not sure how you could go about restricting download access to an app available in the marketplace, but you could have your app determine the phone's carrier and not allow itself to run if it's the wrong carrier. See:

http://www.mail-archive.com/android-developers@googlegroups.com/msg48701.html

Answer 3

You could read out the SIM card's IMSI (this may work) and analyze it.