Google really trying to raise their game with the Android market, we reported a few months ago that they were getting rid of rubbish apps that break the rules and today they announced that they will adding in-app purchases from next week.
In-app purchases have transformed the model of free-to-play apps in recent months, with games like Farmville paving the way for a model that really does seem to work for app developers, and if devs are going to make app for Android they need to be confident that they will see some money for all their hard work. In-app purchase goes along way to securing this.
In-app purchases allow customers to browse content more conveniently and allows users to try out apps for free and then allow them to buy content for the app from within the app it self, making the process a whole lot more secure and user friendly.
In-app purchases are key to free-to-play, and they have led to an explosion of digital commerce in Facebook games such as FarmVille and in titles such as We Rule on the iPhone. This model is an important option because some consumers don't want to pay 99p or more for an app just to try out something on the Android Market.
Developers can now upload apps to the Android Market that will test the whole process for in-app billing. The formal in-app billing will be official next week.
Apple implemented in-app billing in the fall of 2009, giving iPhone developers a new business model that stabilised their companies and allowed them to grow much faster in comparison to Android developers. Game maker Rovio, for example, launched its popular Angry Birds game on Android but it had to use a free ad-based model because there were no in-app purchases.
Android's growing numbers of phones still encouraged developers to make apps for it, but now the in-app billing should make a big difference in how much developers are willing to invest in making apps for the platform.