Mobile is everywhere: play with mobile, pay with mobile
In 2010 we see less and less people using cash payments as there are more secure, accessible and anonymous opportunities. If you haven't noticed then contactless[Image] payments such as NFC, WAP, credit cards and mobile payments have penetrated into our consumer environment. Whichever payment channels are adopted by the providers, mobile and online players choose the method that conveniences their fun-having. Mobile payment, by making the purchase charged in one's phone bill, has become the most preferable payment channel for games, apps and webs.
Though, we launched In-App Payments for Android only a few week ago, we already have a real life and sucessful example of a client who is using In-App Payments for Android. Read what one of our affiliate developer Nutiteq has done with In-App payments. In addition you can download Nutiteq Offline Maps from Android Market for free and see in real life how it works and how neat out In-App Payments solution is.
Getting lost in new locations is a daily dose of adventure for the traveler, whereas mobile maps are today's solution to get back on track without extra stretch. Nutiteq, a developer of mobile mapping applications, can help Android owners' who get into unfamiliar places with pre-dowloadable offline maps. What's even better, users can purchase additional maps without any effort, as the system sends SMS automatically. It's a solutions that leaves you without extra surprises in new locations and on your bill.
Nutiteq wants to share their experience and give ideas to other application providers of how they can generate additional direct revenue from their popular applications and let them know about SMS-based in-application billing options. „So their applications will be better and better, instead of dying out," said Jaak Laineste from Nutiteq.
What is your service Offline Maps for Android about?
Offline Maps for Android is a mapping application for Android mobiles with one special feature: you can pre-download the maps to the device, so you do not need to use the data connection to download them over mobile network. Some other special features are also in the roadmap and will come with updates. Nutiteq is also planning to cover other phone platforms (e.g. Nokia and SonyEricsson phones).
Whom is it for?
This service is especially useful when you are travelling to other countries, where data roaming fees can be very expensive. Typical data roaming fee in Europe is about 5 EUR/MB, and it is not big art to create couple of megabytes data traffic when you are lost in a strange city.
Where did the idea of offering and starting a service like that come from?
It came from my own own needs: when I am travelling to other countries then I almost always turn off data roaming to avoid big surprises on phone bill later. Sometimes I need maps to find my location and directions, and built-in maps in mobile want to download all maps on-line. So, the solution was to create an application which provides you with maps without mobile data connection.
How is Fortumo involved to your service?
Nutiteq Offline Maps is using Fortumo In-App Payments for Android : users can purchase additional content (map packages). What I really like about the In-App Payments service is that users do not have to send any SMS themself – everything is done automatically, they only have to push OK. This seamless payment experience has so far rocketed my payment conversions.
Why did you decide to use In-App Mobile Payments?
As a developer and service provider, I needed to have some kind of monetization to cover costs of service creation and maintenance. Google enables theoretically to have paid app in Android Store, but it has two issues. The first is that Google does not support in-application payments for Android applications, and for this application, where most of added value comes by downloading additional map packages, In-App mobile payments is the most logical choice. The other issue is that Google supports only very few countries where developers can publish paid apps, and my country was not among them, so I just cannot publish any paid app in the Android Market. In-App Mobile Payments was kind of natural choice for me. Mobile Payments can be a bit more expensive than typical mobile app store billing infrastructure, but in many cases the default billing is not sufficient or just not available for you – in our case we have both issues.
What has In-App Mobile Payments additionally given you?
It provides some revenue, of course, and also we can now see how in-application payment system works in practise. This marketing knowledge is also valuable asset. Also we hope to get some traction, as in-application mobile payment solutions are quite new thing and there are very small number of applications using it. I suspect that many application providers just have to provide their apps for free, as Google does not provide suitable solution for them, and they are not aware of the in-app mobile payments options. Maybe I could help them to give one idea how they can generate some additional direct revenue from their popular applications, so the applications will be better and better, instead of dying out.
