billing

Nov

[Updated] Editorial: Full Disclosure - Should Developers Be Required To Disclose That Apps Are Ad-Supported?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, Editorials

Update: Looks like MachineWorks listened -- Duke Nukem 3D is now ad-free.

Earlier today, a somewhat anticipated game went live in the Android Market - Duke Nukem 3D. We covered the release and the news that it was on the way. But reviews of the app on the Market are painting a picture of a less than satisfied customer base, because of a couple key pieces of information that Machineworks Northwest left out of the app description.

First, the game is ad-supported - but it still costs $1 to purchase. The ads cannot be disabled. Now, I'm perfectly OK ...

Apr

Android Market Carrier Billing Now On Sprint, Do You Have It Yet?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, News, Sprint

Well, seems like Google wasn't lying when they said they would continue to work on providing carrier billing as a payment option in the Android Market, announcing the addition of the feature to Sprint handsets, alongside T-Mobile and AT&T. With three out of four major US carriers down, will carrier billing be coming to Verizon any time soon?

The feature has long been the request of many customers across all carriers, particularly internationally. This is largely due to the fact that Google Checkout remains unavailable as a payment option in a number of major international markets in South America and ...

Mar

Get Your Credit Cards Ready - Android In-App Billing System Now Live (P.S. Devs, No More Separate Lite/Paid Apps, Please)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, News

"Great news, everyone!" Last week, Google launched the new in-app billing capability of the Android Market into private beta testing, promising a public release this week, if all went well. Apparently, all did go well, as the company today opened this most-exciting feature to everyone. To be fair, iOS users have been enjoying in-app billing in the App Store since 2009, so Google's move is quite a bit late (don't make me bring up the whole copy-paste thing to balance the argument!).

Want to buy a new downloadable level or music track in your favorite game? No problem - ...

Mar

In-App Purchasing Now Open For Private Developer Testing, Launching Publicly Next Week

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Apps/Games, Google, News

February 2nd was an exciting day for Android fans - we were given an in-depth preview of Honeycomb, laid our eyes on some stunning 3D tablet games, and were even treated to a much-anticipated online version of the Android Market. But 2/2/2011 was also the fateful day that spelled "doom" for lite / demo versions of Android apps, as Google unveiled their new in-app billing system.

Today, Google made another announcement regarding in-app purchases: the feature will launch publicly next week. In addition, developers can now upload apps utilizing the service to the Android Market Developer ...

Dec

Carrier Billing Comes To Android Market On AT&T - Creates Audible Drop In The Paid App Bucket

Posted by David Ruddock in Apps/Games, AT&T, News

That's right, carrier billing is now available for some Android users on the least Android-friendly wireless carrier in the US. Huzzah. I guess I shouldn't be so cynical - I am an AT&T customer, after all. Unfortunately, I also run CyanogenMod 6 on my AT&T Nexus One, and have not yet received any Market update to allow me to use carrier billing, and doubt I will until an official Gingerbread build coaxes me off my custom ROM goodness.

The Android Developers blog has stated the carrier billing option will roll out to phones as part of the larger Market update ...

Sep

Verizon Decides To Make More Bad Decisions - VCAST App Market Is The Latest

Posted by Brad Ganley in News, Verizon Wireless

Well, Verizon is up to their old tricks again. Last time they did something worthy of a head-scratch was just a short time ago, when they forced Bing onto the Fascinate and abandoned the built-in Google bits and pieces for search.

Now they've decided that, in addition to Google Maps, Google Search, and Google Voice Search not being necessary, the Android MARKET is insufficient. Introducing the Vcast App Store!

Verizon seems to think that they are somehow more likely to persuade users to buy apps. While there may be some advantages (carrier billing being the only one i ...

Jul

Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement Updated To Allow Carrier Billing. Paid Apps In More International Markets Soon?

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, News

In a short post on the Android developers blog, Googler Tim Bray let word out that the Android Market’s Developer Distribution Agreement had been updated in a significant way:

Posted by Tim Bray on 23 July 2010 at 5:24 PM
Please note that we have updated the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement (DDA). This is in preparation for some work we’re doing on introducing new payment options, which we think developers will like.
In the spirit of transparency, we wanted to highlight the changes:
In Section 13.1, “authorized carriers” have been added as an indemnified party.
Section

...

Jun

Carrier Billing For Android Applications Without Google

Posted by Andrew Huff in Apps/Games, News

As a developer myself, one issue with the Android market has always been the payment methods…or rather, the lack thereof. Aside from Google Checkout and carrier billing for some companies within the US, there really aren’t a whole lot of options to consider, especially when dealing with the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement.

Well, as with all things in the world of technology, a company seems to have found a bit of a loophole in regards to carrier billing for developers, or more specifically, integrating it into their applications and games. This has a lot of implications, including a big ...