Billing on Mobile

In an entry posted on the Official Android developer blog, Google announced Android Market, a content deployment channel that will allow users to find and install new software. Google mobile platform program manager Eric Chu said that the Android Market will be open to all third-party developers - good news for the developer community. Interestingly, although the Android Market will only include software that is available at no cost during the initial beta, Google plans to implement support for commercial distribution shortly after the official launch.

Could Google be seeking to replicate Apple’s success with its iPhone App store which generated sales of software $30 million in July alone?

“This thing’s going to crest at half a billion, soon,” Jobs told the Wall Street Journal in an article: iPhone Software Sales take off. “Who knows, maybe it will be a $1bn marketplace at some point in time. I’ve never seen anything like this in my career for software.”

With a run rate of around $30 million a month, the App store is certainly showing that making apps easy to find and relatively easy to buy makes business possible. Google could be even more successful if it removed one of the iPhone store’s biggests hurdle - you can’t pay for apps on your phone bill. Mobile billing solutions such as Bango’s global payment service enable people to pay for mobile content and services directly on thier phone bill.

We like the fact that uploading apps to the Google Market will be an intuitive YouTube like experience. “Similar to YouTube, content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it,” said Google’s Chu.