Install Android Market On Nook Honeycomb Tablet

In the last post, I walked through getting Deeper Blue's Honeycomb preview image running on the Barnes and Noble Nook Color. I've been using the Nook as a Honeycomb tablet for a couple of weeks and overall it works very well. There are a couple of bugs but that is to be expected from a preview image. There was one particular thing that bothered me though, there is no Android Market. If you look through the FAQ on this forum.xda-developers.com thread, you will understand why Deeper Blue did not include the Market in the image.

Q: Why is there no Market app installed?
A: There's no legal way to distribute the google apps with a ROM.

While they are not included in the image, there is a way to get the Android Market, GMail, and Maps apps on your Nook Honeycomb tablet.  Here's what you will need:

• Nook Honeycomb Tablet from my previous post
• Nook Color USB cable
• Android Central Sideload Wonder Machine
• HoneyGApps.v2.zip from jleecong at xda-developers
• Windows XP/Vista/7 computer

While you don't actually need the Android Central Sideload Wonder Machine (AC_SWM), it is probably the simplest way to get the adb.exe file you will need. Adb.exe is used to push the Android Market app to your Nook. Plus, AC_SWM is a handy application if you own any Android devices. If you already have adb.exe from the Android SDK or another application, you can use that adb.exe instead of AC_SWM.

Start off by going to http://nookdevs.com/NookColor_USB_ADB#Windows_XP.2C_Vista_and_7 and following the directions to get the Nook Color driver working in Windows. The good folks at nookdevs.com have done a great job of explaining the driver installation so I'm not going to repeat the information here. You will not need the full Android SDK so just do steps 2 (II) and 3 (III); "II. Patch the USB Driver files" and "III. Connect the device and install the drivers." Come back here after you have the driver installed.

After the driver is installed, extract AC_SWM to the root of your C: drive. It needs to be in a folder named C:\AC_SWM like the image below.



Next, extract the contents of HoneyGApps.v2.zip in to the C:\AC_SWM folder. You need to end up with adb.exe and all of the .apk files from HoneyGApps.v2.zip in the same folder (C:\AC_SWM), see below.


Turn on your Nook Honeycomb tablet. Choose Apps->Settings->Applications->Development and make sure that USB debugging is enabled. Now, connect the USB cable to the Nook and your computer.

Navigate back to C:\AC_SWM and double click on HoneyGAppInstall.cmd.

Hopefully, you see output like the image above and it runs without errors. If everything goes smoothly, your Nook will reboot. After Honeycomb starts back up, choose Apps and look for the new Market, Gmail, and Maps icons. Enjoy!

If you found this information was helpful for you or if you ran into trouble, please leave a comment below. Thanks for visiting!

All of the credit for the Nook Honeycomb image, Nook driver, and Google Apps work should go to the development communities at xda-developers and nookdevs.com.