The Telekom Austria Group and Research In Motion (RIM) today announced the launch of integrated carrier billing for BlackBerry App World for customers of Telekom Austria Group’s operating company in Austria, A1 Telekom Austria.
Austria is the first country of the Telekom Austria Group’s market to enable customers to purchase apps from BlackBerry App World and conveniently charge the purchases directly to their monthly phone bill. The integrated carrier billing will support in-app purchases as well, allowing the download of fee-based digital goods, such as additional features in an app or levels in a game, without interrupting the application experience.
“We always strive to offer our customers throughout the Group the most practical mobile services available on the market. There is a great demand for comfortable payment solutions for mobile content,” Claudia Winkler, Group Chief Marketing Officer explains. “We are happy to be among the first in Europe to offer our BlackBerry users this great advantage.” BlackBerry App World offers a wide range of more than 25,000 applications developed specifically for BlackBerry smartphones.
Claudia Winkler: “Simplified and secure payment via the monthly phone bill adds convenience to our customers’ application experience and creates the cost transparency the users ask for. We are glad to have Research In Motion as a strong partner, and will be rolling out this service for all our customers across our markets.”While customers take advantage of the payment method’s simplicity, carrier billing is also said to offer benefits for developers. According to market experience the easy purchasing method via the phone bill results in increased downloads and subsequently higher revenues for the developer. “We found that applications with local content are the most popular among our users. So we hope, that the new service will add momentum to the downloads,” adds Claudia Winkler. Developers will have a better environment for the creation of apps for BlackBerry App World, which will spur on the development of more local applications for BlackBerry users.