Disturbing news out of Reuters’ business division: reports are coming in that Google is telling major Android Market/Google Play developers to adopt Google Wallet for in-app purchases, or be removed from Android’s official app distribution platform. Major developer Papaya Mobile told Reuters that Google sent them an email in August that they had to switch from their current payment system or be booted off the Android Market. Google declined to comment on the story.
If true, the restriction of payment options from PayPal and other competing services would severely limit developers’ ability to choose their own method of charging players and customers. An integrated system would mirror Apple’s policy, which only allows for in-app purchases through iTunes. It’s not just games that are affected: popular media delivery apps like ComiXology use non-Google systems for purchasing. Larger marketplaces like Kindle and Amazon MP3 jump out to the mobile browser to complete purchases, perhaps for this very reason.
While Papaya said that they’d comply with anything that Google asked, other developers may not be so accommodating – and the Google Play Store isn’t the only game in town. While the addition of tens of thousands of games and media apps to Google Wallet would certainly be a boon (especially considering the bad press they’ve gotten lately) I’ve got to say that this is a discouraging way to do it. We’ll be eagerly waiting a response from Google on this issue.
[via The Verge]
This is a non-issue. The Android Market is not and never has been an open solution. If devs want to play in Google’s sandbox, they have to play by their rules. It only makes sense. If they want to use their own payment systems, they’ll need to sell their apps elsewhere. That’s what makes Android open.
Really, keeping payment methods consistent across the Play Store is a good thing for customers, and devs shouldn’t mind either.
This is a move backwards instead of forward. I hate PayPal but I have to use it just because I want to sell so,ethimg on eBay. Devs want options. Google wallet sucks and no one wants to use it not even the customers. Thank goodness for amazon otherwise developers would be screwed. The lesser of 2 evilsismyour friend
I kind of like the news as a consumer but I can see why that is frustrating for developers. I hope this new G Play doesn’t become a closed environment.
Apps are what is needed to make your smartphone smart and unique.Im fond of app creating and find it really helpful to use site like Snappii where i can build apps in minutes.
Google is exploiting its monopolistic status as the sole payment
processor on its app market by charging its developers a 30 percent processing fee,
which is precisely what Apple and Facebook are doing. It is truly amazing how these companies can
get away with charging such astronomically high fees. I can’t even imagine what people will say
about us (and to us), if we even tried to charge our merchants anything remotely
close to that rate. For a more detailed
analysis: http://blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/google-wallet-and-the-bane-of-multiple-payment-choices.