When it comes to charging for mobile apps, payments usually have to go through either the carriers or one of the emerging mobile app platforms such as Apple or Google’s Android. The problem with charging for an iPhone app through iTunes is that Apple takes 30 percent. A startup called Billing Revolution wants to charge about one tenth as much for a seamless, mobile one-click shopping experience. Already available on other phones, Billing Revolution is announcing availability today for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android apps.
Once a consumer signs up to pay for things through Billing Revolution, he is presented with an Amazon-like one-click payment option no matter what app is using it. (Didn’t Amazon patent that?). Billing Revolution charges a 3.5 percent transaction fee plus 50 cents per transaction.
That pretty much kills any app developer using it for micro-transactions. Nobody is going to sell a digital song for $1.00 if they need to pay Billing Revolution 53.5 cents. But it could become an option for larger purchases, and as a way to charge for premium subscriptions for apps that build adoption with a lighter-weight free version.
appears a good option to pay out for the apps
Why not use Amazon’s Flexible Payments Service (part of AWS)?
Very simple API with a large, trusted company. Lots of people already have accounts with Amazon too, minimizing a customer’s efforts to make a purchase.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=342430011
Billing Revolution seems to be expensive.
How would you install an application purhased with this method? Doesn’t the app need to be listed in the app store to install on the iPhone?
Problem is consumers are still disclosing credit or debit data to intermediaries exposing themselves to fraud and identity theft. Check these guys’s solution to online payment: http://www.kanatait.com
I doubt this is a feasible solution for iPhone apps and if it is, I doubt Apple will remain quiet. Steve said that the App Store was the only way to get apps. Maybe BR is only targeting web apps on the iPhone?
Aside from the fact that Amazon has a patent on “one-click purchasing” I think this is a fantastic idea.
Maybe not
Nice to see some competition in this space. $.50 per transaction is going to be pretty expensive for the lower priced apps that try to make money off volume. However, everything priced $1.99 or more should make better margins. Good luck to them!
You say : “payments usually have to go through either the carriers or one of the emerging mobile app platforms such as Apple or Google’s Android”
Apple is not a platform. The Apple iTunes store is a selling platform.
You say : “The problem with charging for an iPhone app through iTunes is that Apple takes 30 percent.”
You are implying that this new company is offering a solution for developers that will somehow obviate the need for them to sell their wares through Apple’s AppStore. This is simply false. Currently, no third party can inject themselves into the process of buying or installing apps on the iPhone. If you had read or understood what this company is offering you would know that the solution being offered is for simplifying mobile payments on the web using your credit card (e.g. buying movie tickets). You, as the writer, really should have even the most basic understanding of what you are writing about before you make yourself and your publication look foolish.
Apple operates the iTunes Store, collects payments, controls the hardware where these apps run, etc. It is the platform.
I never say that paid apps can bypass the itunes store with this. But app developers can give their apps away for free (and not pay Apple anything) and then try to monetize in the app itself using Billing Solutions. Once the app is in consumers’ hands the developers can try to charge for whatever they want. They can try to sell digital or physical goods like movie tickets (see image), or upsell premium subscriptions to access better features. It thus opens up a new revenue path for apps beyond charging for the app itself or advertising.
You should learn how to read.
What a hack, firstly you write this rubbish article, which implies EXACTLY what the previous poster said, which is simply incorrect, and then you have the gall to respond with “You should learn how to read”
Thumbs down!
Unfortunately the applications that I pay for on my iPhone do no warrant the $.50 it costs per each transaction. I will definitely have to take a look at this further down the road though.
Actually, the way I interpreted the article they are offering the ability to enable transactions from within an iPhone app. I could envision a lot of opportunities there.
Don’t the Apple App Store terms and conditions prevent this?
Autositebill.com offers a mobile payment platform which will cost merchants a maximum of 1%+$0.15 per transaction. More importantantly the company behind Autositebill offers its mWorldPay solution to customers all over the world so that they can make purchases at participating online merchant site. The company offers 100% gurantee of 0% chargebacks.
Why would I need to set up a web account for a mobile payment? Seems counter productive to any impulse buy.
Terry – actually with the Autositebill option you need to do a web account because the initial setup of the account requires a little more information that can easily be had from the mobile phone at setup. Further, with Autositebill you may get detailed information on account history, etc.
With the mWorldPay/Autositebill payment gateway once money is in the customer’s mobile account the customer may make impulse purchase and the purchase is not registricted to any particular product/service that is coded with some “keyword” like what is reguired when using PayPal.
One-click purchasing on a phone is cool – but no replacement for iTunes – you pay 30% for the traffic – not the billing
Super neat! Now they just need something like this for OpenMoko. Oh, and also an app store. yai! &)
Hmm… to be usable across retailers they would have to either use an existing payment network or acquire retailers themselves. The former is expensive on a per transaction basis. The latter is just expensive.
To work on a 1-click model it will either have to have a pre-funded stored value or store the consumer’s credit or debit card info running an auth for each transaction. Users resist the former as they don’t like budget “islands”. The latter is Paypal.
So, how is this better than Paypal?
Hi Michael,
Thank you for the comments.
Our one-click solution offers both merchants and consumers with a unique solution.
Anyone can now become a visa merchant selling both digital and physical goods from either a web or wap site. All with just a few easy steps. Equally important, is the opportunity to sell all forms of product without the existing carrier revenue share.
Consumers benefit from the single click experience and the elimination of any web account (nothing mobile about that nor does it allow for any impulse purchases).
John
I think the name is a little to self loathing too.
Btw
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