Microsoft and Idea cellular have hit a retro note as they have introduced operator based billing for the Windows Store. This new feature will enable the masses to make purchases in the Windows Store. The amount will reflect in the monthly bill of postpaid customers and in the case of prepaid subscribers the amount would be deducted from the balance instantaneously.
Play Store and some games in the Playstore have already successfully integrated the operator billing for in app purchases and upfront purchases. India has one of the lowest density of credit card users and thus it also had a relatively low purchase capacity as earlier the stores used to require credit cards.
Mr.Harish Vaidyanathan, Director Evangelism at Microsoft Corporation quoted that “Unlike other parts of the world, credit card penetration in India is very low and this in turn impedes the consumer purchase experience and limits app monetization. With the introduction of operator billing, we have seen a significant increase in consumer commerce across developed and emerging markets”
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This is a much appreciated move from Idea and Microsoft, we hope that all the operators follow the suit. I had personally faced lots of issues making purchases in Windows Application store although i had a credit card as it used to bill internationally. The operator based billing will surely help applications and games publishers to earn more revenue. The only downside of this feature is that Microsoft needs to keep a tight leash on quality and functionality of the application as there are chances that publisher might dupe customers with fake applications.
