Verizon intoduces payment options for Google apps
20 Oct 2012
Verizon will soon let its customers pay for Google Play apps, books, movies, music, magazines and other content.
The company is rolling out the "Bill my Verizon Wireless account" payment option for Android users shopping in the Google Play Store on a phone or tablet over the next couple of weeks.
Google Play followers were sent out tweets to the effect yesterday. CNET reports, users could rack up a bill upto $25 per phone number, per month.
"We're glad to be providing this option to our customers as they shop for great apps in Google Play," a Verizon spokeswoman said.
T-Mobile followed AT&T and Sprint in adding carrier billing for Google Play in May.
Analysts say Google is doing everything to boost the profitability of Google play, which, in its Android Market form, struggled to generate revenue. Media companies, though, see the phone bill as a huge opportunity to increase customer spending.
Meanwhile, critics point out that the phone bill is quickly becoming a Trojan horse for clever marketers to add on new charges to customers, because phone bills are already such a confusing maze of surcharges, fees, and taxes that slipping in another would hardly be noticed.