Previously, we have highlighted 2 very important announcements made last week with regards to Carrier Billing and Licensing Service for Application at the Android Development Blog.
Let us now move on to the newly proposed Carrier Billing initiative.
The two key changes highlighted in the blog post are:
- Section 13.1, “authorized carriers” have been added as an indemnified party.
- Section 13.2 is new in its entirety, covering indemnity for payment processors for claims related to tax accrual.
What this means for us is that Google, with the addition of the 2 points above, is intending to offload Android Market billing to the wireless carriers. What impact will this have on the users, the Android developers and the wireless carriers themselves?
First of all, Android developers will welcome the change. Although the current Android Market payment system, requiring a Google Checkout account, is similar to the Apple App Store system, Google Checkout has not been embraced by Android users the way iTunes has been embraced by iPhone users. The resistance to the adoption of Google Checkout seems to be that most users find it quite tedious to go through a few steps before being able to complete the transaction and download the app. It also makes impulse buying that much harder! This has definitely led to less than fantastic app sales for the Android Market and thus lesser interest in Android Apps developments.
With carrier billing, not only can users purchase applications with just a click, but they will only be able to see a record of that purchase until they get their bills at the end of the month. Well, this might create some sadness at the end of the month for the users but to the developers, this is just so much better for their business.
Secondly, the wireless carriers themselves will also benefit by getting to play middleman and possibly getting a piece of the app revenue pie. If wireless carriers can share the revenue from app sales, which they are unable to at the moment with Apple, it gives the wireless carriers very powerful incentives to promote Android smartphones much more aggressively and help drive sales of Android Market apps. Now, all these are done without Google having to invest its own money in marketing the Android Market, with the added benefits of outsourcing of Android Market billing.
Thirdly, the users themselves stand to benefit from this arrangement as this will allow users in countries without access to paid apps in the Android Market at the moment to install their apps via Android market instead of via other sources. There are many ways to gain access to great apps such as via Mobihand.com but nothing beats having the convenience of accessing an online store via an application and installing the application directly to your Android.
There are many possible downsides to this initiative, though.
Impulse buying:
Without the added step of logging in or confirming payment options, users might purchase apps unknowingly, or without being consciously aware of the costs.
No more freebies?
One of the reasons that the Android Market has flourished to this point is because of its free applications. We learned a few weeks ago that The Market had 70,000 apps, and we know that 57 percent of them are free. With carrier billing coming into the picture, will we be seeing an influx of paid applications and lesser freebies?
Security Concerns:
It is also possible that unscrupulous developers, phishing, or malware attacks could result in undesired apps being charged to the account without the user's authorization.
Nonetheless, Android users stand to benefit from a stronger developer community and a more exciting market, filled with high quality applications of both the free and premium versions. Users will just need to be careful of what they click and the costs, and pay extra attention to errant charges when the bill arrives. The rumour is that this should comes into play by the end of August 2010.
Exciting times are coming for Android – just in time for year end shopping frenzy perhaps?
