How to install Play Store on Alcatel OT 979 I am switching from iPhone to Android. I do not speak Android/PC. I speak Apple. This has been a difficult transition, and I require a simple explanation (pretend I am 5 years old). 

My new Alcatel One Touch 979 did not have Android Market / Google Play installed. After much searching, I figured out how to get the application. I downloaded it - safely - and it was a very slow start, but now it only crashes. I tried three different platforms, each having the same outcome:


Android Market 2.3.6.apk
Google Play Store 3.5.16.apk and 3.8.16.apk


The error message reads "Sorry! The application Google Play Store (process com.android.vending) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again." My only option is to force close. 

The phone is listed as a supported device on the Google Play help page. I suspect I'm accessing an incompatible version, but I just don't know - and there are so many versions from which to choose.

When I log into my Google account via the laptop, I see my phone's application activity! I have a lengthy Orders list, but nothing has downloaded to the phone. To that end, when I review the "Device Manager" option in my account, nothing is listed, but when browsing the Play store and selecting applications, the compatibility indicator recognizes the phone and states whether the app is a match. How and what is happening?! The user manual for the phone is in a foreign language (Mandarin) with no English translation, so I cannot use it to troubleshoot. Here is some information about the phone:


http://magazine.tcl.com/en/article.aspx?id=476
https://deviceatlas.com/device-data/devices/alcatel/ot-979/3638583


The phone has Kernel version 2.6.35.7+SW2SVR@Android-Server #1. The Baseband version is BCM2155x_CustomerRel_SS_1_3_9_P3. I have no idea what any of this means, but I'm sharing in case it matters. The micro SD is a 4GB memory and the internal memory is 126MB. 

I have tried clearing the data and the cache. I have also tried a hard re-set, which reverts the phone back to its linguistic Beijing origins, and I needed assistance getting it to English language. I am out of ideas, except to wait for the iPhone 5S launch. I've only had the phone for 15 hours; I'm an Android infant newborn. My head is spinning, really. There must be a kinder, simpler way to use the application store on this phone. 

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
You can't just install the APK, you have to download a GApps package, which contains all the Google applications that come with Google licensed phones. This, however, requires rooting the phone and installing a recovery.

The reason for all the trouble is that while Android is open source, Google Apps are proprietary code, and devices have to be licensed with Google in order for the Apps to be included on the device.

For more information, see How can I install the Google Apps Package (Play Store, ...) on my Android device?, RootzWiki GApps page and GApps download.