Australian Operator Optus Deliberately Blocking Android Paid Apps
from the it-wants-a-cut,-apparently dept
A few folks have sent in the news that Australian mobile operator Optus appears to be completely blocking access to paid apps for owners of Android phones. Apparently people have been complaining about this for a while, and Optus has been mostly silent on the matter, only stating:"Optus is currently working with Google to provide an Android application store to our customers, and we are optimistic it will be available soon."Except, of course, it shouldn't require any permission from Optus at all -- which is leading to reasoned speculation that Optus is blocking access to paid apps in the Android app store because Optus wants a cut of the revenue. This is typical of mobile carriers who keep wanting to believe that they're the tollbooth everyone needs to pay. Instead, the more likely result is just to drive mobile phone users to other carriers.
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Filed Under: android, apps, paid apps
Companies: google, optus
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So does Rogers, in Canada
I have since rooted the phone and cleared off their garbage version of the OS, and enabled paid apps on my own. I have no idea if Rogers has enabled them for the "typical" consumer.
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Re: So does Rogers, in Canada
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Re: Re: So does Rogers, in Canada
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Re: Re: Re: So does Rogers, in Canada
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Kool-aid! Get your Kool-aid here! $0.25/cup!
What other carrier? Are you trying to convince us these carriers have differing plans with differing prices without the same restrictions?
I've yet to see a single one anywhere *in the world*.
Who needs a damn monopoly when price fixing is much more lucrative except to the consumer.
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Re: Kool-aid! Get your Kool-aid here! $0.25/cup!
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Profits
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2008/10/android-market-now-available-for-users.html
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And if they can prevent access to the app's unless layment is recieved they would be right !. That's the way America works also.
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Net Neutrality
Let's be clear, Google ain't just sellin' ring tones -- they're bringing a platform that includes everything in a mobile carriers infrastructure less the cellular network. And on behalf of their shareholders, a wireless carrier ain't just tryin' to be a dumb pipe -- there's little growth in that.
And Google is an Advertising company which happens to be a key component of mobile commerce. Further, there has been aggressive competition and positioning in the mobile commerce space for a better part of a decade (who would know?), and mobile carriers have been, rightly or wrongly, counting on a slice of the pie.
That makes Google a potential competitor without touching Google Voice.
Let's be clear, I'm no fan of wireless cartels and their artificial markets. But I'm not sure I'd be so quick to allow Google unfettered access to "my" customers at this time without rights to Sergey's firstborn and compromising photos of Larry: there's just too much uncertainty at the moment.
And I think those of us focused on App store revenue are thinking way short-term; that's just a gate established by Apple, Google and others. With mainstream mobile computing taking off, in less than 10 years, mobile commerce will far exceed online-only advertising revenue.
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Re: Net Neutrality
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Net Neutrality
One would think that the phone companies would be trying to innovate; for example, offering customers value that complements the paid apps. Instead they company is trying to tax the innovation of others.
The choice is not "dumb pipe" versus "toll booth". The choice is "dumb pipe" versus "innovation".
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Google blocking Optus
If I have an optus sim card in the phone, i CAN'T access the paid market over wifi. If i use an out of date prepaid vodafone sim I CAN access the paid market.
Given I'm using wifi and not the mobile network one can only conclude that it is Google that is blocking optus customers.
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