Microsoft recently announced that Windows Store has become the first global smartphone platform to enable carrier billing for app purchases in hina, India and Brazil. Verizon also recently enabled carrier billing for Windows Phone in the US. These new feature provide great pportunity for developers.
“China Mobile alone is estimated to serve nearly 800 million customers, including millions of Windows Phone users,” said Todd Brix,General Manager, Windows Store and Developer Marketing, Microsoft.
Microsoft has now established connections with 81 carriers in 46 markets around the world. According to Ovum World Cellular Information Service, this brings a combined subscriber base of 2.6 billion users, which is around 46% of all subscribers worldwide.
Microsoft has tied up with Idea in India to provide carrier billing for Windows Store downloads. This feature will be very useful for those people who use Windows Phone but don’t have a Credit Card to make app purchases.
A complete list of mobile operators who supports Windows Store billing is provided in the Windows Dev center.
“No mobile platform provider is working harder to open up emerging smartphone markets to developers than Microsoft. We’ve invested in all three phases of app commerce to keep customers coming back to our Store: global reach, discoverability and payment,” said Todd.
Some of the core feature implemented by Microsoft for Windows Store are listed below
- Access to Windows Store in 191 markets and in 50 languages, with support for a variety of monetization options including paid, freemium and ad-funded apps
- Localized App Development
- Wide range of payment options – Credit Cards, Alipay, PayPal, Bitcoin (U.S. only) and Carrier Based Billing
Microsoft claims that new carrier billing connections have the immediate impact of increasing total paid transactions by 8x per month in emerging markets and 3x in developed markets. Microsoft has seen an 87% increase in monthly sales every year.
Microsoft is working hard to deliver rich experiences across a diverse global product portfolio that is backed by a Store that combines flexible monetization choices for developers with simple payment options for consumers. The ultimate benefit goes to both developers and consumers.
