I fully agree. Apple has externally boasted about how many apple accounts that have associated credit cards. I image they follow this number closely internally. I think Google is now starting to realize the importance of this metric. Google should make getting customers to pay something a priority for every product/division.
A much better approach might be to make a deal with the carriers and simply have app store purchases show up on your phone bill. This way they get around the whole credit card problem and the phones come ready to shop right out of the box with the end user having to do anything.
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I fully agree. Apple has externally boasted about how many apple accounts that have associated credit cards. I image they follow this number closely internally. I think Google is now starting to realize the importance of this metric. Google should make getting customers to pay something a priority for every product/division.
A much better approach might be to make a deal with the carriers and simply have app store purchases show up on your phone bill. This way they get around the whole credit card problem and the phones come ready to shop right out of the box with the end user having to do anything.
The Android Market already does this for some carriers, for example T-Mobile.
And Sprint.
Why don't I pay you through your phone carrier? Not bad for me, but you'd probably have to split your profits with Verizon.
Google already gives the money made on app purchases to carriers.