Google has finally enabled in-app payments on Android Market, and you’ve no doubt read many sources (including as us) saying it’s a very good thing. But why? What will in-app payments mean for you, the Android smartphone owner? Read on to find out.
In-app payments have been a part of iPhone-users’ lives for some time now, and they’ve been (by and large) a huge success for everyone involved. Its arrival on Android Market goes some way to achieving some kind of parity with the Apple service. Here’s why.
The concept
The idea of in-app purchases is a simple one – you download the core app for free (or relatively cheaply), and are given some base level of functionality from the off. If you’re suitably impressed, or are convinced that you want to see more, you can either unlock the rest of the app for a fee (paid through your Google account and from within the app) or even just buy the bits of content that you want.
The idea is that the customer feels they’re getting something for nothing (or for very cheap) and only paying for what they will definitely use. For app developers, it’s a way of enticing people in to spend money. Once you’re attached to an app and know what it’s about, you’re more likely to spend money on it.
Naturally, though, this is all dependent on well made applications. Here are some of ways in-app purchases have been implemented.
Application applications
Undoubtedly the biggest user and benefactor of in-app purchasing is games. From so-called “freemium” social games (where the game itself is free but in-game currency and certain desirable objects have a real-world price slapped on) to regular games with additional levels and modes unlocked by a fresh cash injection, it’s big business.
Most importantly for Android users, the success of such games on iPhone will likely mean a flood of new titles arriving on the Google platform. With a number of high profile developers switching to an almost exclusively freemium model, the Android Market has up until this point been ignored by many.
Other apps benefit from the in-app purchasing facility, too. For example, one of the first apps on the Android Market to be updated for the new pricing system is Comics, which is effectively an ebook store and reader app focused on – you guessed it – comics. The app itself is free, allowing you to browse a whole bunch of comics from the likes of DC and Image, but now you can purchase them through your Google account.
A word of caution
It’s not all rosy in the world of in-app payments. As premium smartphone games developer Gameloft has found recently, not every game type is best served by the freemium model. Indeed, it changed its mind on the implementation of such a model in two of its more “hard-core” games, and reverted to a standard up-front charge.
It’s also worth noting the hidden (or at least partially obscured) costs of some apps that use this model. Previously, Android apps could be bought with a simple one-off payment – you knew exactly what you were paying, even if it was a relatively expensive app. With in-app payments the cap on your spending is now gone and costs can mount up alarmingly quickly if you don’t keep an eye on things.
In-app payments are a welcome arrival on the Android Market, but you the Android owner really need to establish what the overall costs will be to get the functionality you want from an app. If you don’t deem it to be worthwhile, you might want to turn to a traditionally priced alternative.
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