Carrier billing for people to buy apps, games, books, movies and various other things in the Google Play Store has been a rough road for many of them. T-Mobile has had the service around forever, but Verizon has been slow to the starting line to actually allow it. Why? Not sure. With a company that has billions of dollars in revenue, allowing their customers to rack up higher phones bills seems like a good idea. It also could have been because Verizon was working out their own Android Market of sorts and doesn’t like to play nice with Google when ever possible, much like the they are doing with Isis and Google wallet. For whatever reason they have for keeping the ability to bill your account for purchases, those days are near the end of their life though. We spoke with a reliable source from Verizon who clued us into the upcoming announcement of carrier billing.
As you can see from the source image there will be a $25 a month limit in purchasable content that you can charge to your account. This is going to help ensure your phone bill doesn’t get carried away and that you aren’t able to pay it. Also, it will help keep teenagers inline from going berserk on purchasing things.  I know this news is sure to make some of you jump for joy.
Further research also pulled up some other interesting information for Verizon Developers regarding in-app purchases , Verizon provides you with everything you need to get started—all compressed into a single ZIP file.
Our Verizon Apps In-App Purchase and Subscriptions SDK is now available for download for Android devices. Customers Verizon Apps application purchases are stored in the Verizon Apps server and application licenses are accessible through the API for validation. Billing for applications and subsequent In-App purchases is tied into the Verizon Wireless billing system and charges are made directly to the customers monthly Verizon Wireless bill.
Our previously released Subscriptions SDK allowed developers to ensure applications sold through Verizon Apps(whether one-time download, recurring subscription, or even free) were legitimately purchased by adding a few lines of code to their existing apps that enabled valid license checks. The In-App Purchase SDK combines that Subscriptions functionality with the ability to easily enable your application to perform In-App purchases in a single SDK.
The In-App Purchase & Subscriptions SDK can be downloaded here
Online Guidance is on the portal, found hereThe In-App Purchase SDK features the following:
– In-App Purchasing and Subscriptions is released as open source code.
– Minimal coding required, Verizon Apps client performs bulk of work.
Flexibility:
*Items can be submitted with min-max price ranges to cover multiple offerings.
*Micro-transaction options can be displayed in any format developers choose.Security
* In-App purchases return server signed licenses using RSA encryption and API can be modified to send
licenses from within an app to a remote server for further processing.
* License validation applies to any price model including one-time downloads, subscriptions, even free
apps.Price options:
– When submitting a Subscriptions only apps:
* Parent app price model can include recurring monthly Subscription pricing, One-time download,
* Time Based (1-30 days), Free, and Trials.– When submitting a Subscriptions app with In-App capability:
* Parent app price model can include One-time download and Free.
* In-App items can have Per Download, Unlimited Download, Time Based (1-30 Days), or Monthly Subscription price types.If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to us on the VDC developer forums or email VCast-Apps@verizonwireless.com. Looking forward to your In-App SDK Enabled submissions!
Regards,
Verizon Wireless Developer Relations
