T-Mobile to bill direct for app sales
T-Mobile is to have its own channel for customers using the Android app store. It’s also allowing any purchases from the store to simply be added on to the monthly bill rather than having to pay via credit card.
At the moment, users buying an application from the Android store usually have to pay via Google Checkout. This involves storing credit card details as part of a Google account. The system hasn’t really taken off as it’s in a tough spot: systems such as PayPal work for most purchases where the seller doesn’t have their own card processing facilities, so the only reason you would sign up to Google Checkout is if you really wanted to buy something that didn’t accept other payment methods. That’s fine for an important purchase, but for something like a mobile phone app, many potential buyers will simply pass it up as too much hassle.
Under the new system, T-Mobile users can simply buy the app and pay for it via their monthly bill. The network will then pass on the relevant share of the payment to the app developer. Naturally this is being billed as extending consumer choice, but in practice it’s as much about making it even easier to casually buy an app without giving much thought to the cost.
T-Mobile will also be launching its own channel in the app store, which will give customers the option to download an entire package of apps in one go. The channel will feature a selection of apps which the carrier believes will benefit users. At the moment it appears it will be a single selection for all users, but the idea could certainly be refined to take account of the particular handset being used, for example picking apps better suited to casual users or business customers.
The announcements came as T-Mobile revealed that 50 percent of people using the MyTouch 3G handset visit the app store at least once every day.
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