Google’s Introducing New Market Purchase Options; Pay For Apps Alongside Your Monthly Bill?
It’s nothing new for a carrier to enable “order now, pay later” options for their consumers on Android: T-Mobile’s been allowing this for quite some time. Recent changes to the Market Developer Distribution Agreement, however, have been made to make way for new payment options in the future. There are two key changes Google‘s made:
- In 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.
These changes are basically saying “Carriers – who we define as ‘authorized’ – will be allowed to foot the bill for app purchases made by their users in the market.” While Google hasn’t officially or fully acknowledged that these are the options they’re introducing, the changes to the developer agreement insinuate just as much. Perhaps more people will be willing to buy apps if they know they can lump the expenses into their cell phone bill at the end of every cycle (usually monthly).