T-Mobile to Offer Carrier Billing for the Android Market

Wireless carrier T-Mobile seems determined to offer as many features as possible to its Android subscribers, and it is now set to soon add carrier billing for the Android Market, as well as its own channel within the software portal. According to the company, this feature will offer recommendations on the content available for download, so as to ease users’ search and purchase of apps.

T-Mobile's CTO Cole Brodman announced at Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco that the new features would soon become available for the carrier's users. As a recent article on moconews indicates, the T-Mobile Channel will be launched in time for Thanksgiving, yet users can already enjoy an “AppPack” that recommends a number of 34 free and paid apps.

“We are making it very easy to purchase apps. Historically, research has shown that with carrier billing, there’s a big uptick of 30 to 40 percent in app or content downloads... We’ve been working very closely with Google over the last several months to integrate the Android Market with our internal billing gateway,” is what Venetia Espinoza, Director of Mobile Applications and Partner Programs, stated, cited by moconews.

The new T-Mobile Channel in the Android Market is set to help users easily discover new applications, and will be offered at the same time with the the AppPack, T-Mobile said. According to the wireless carrier, it plans on updating the T-Mobile Channel with new applications every other week. At the same time, the company launched the “Pitch Page,” which offers developers the possibility to submit their applications to be included in the AppPack or the Channel.

The mobile phone carrier is also reported to have pointed towards a number of four Android handsets that it will offer to subscribers before the holiday season. The already available T-Mobile G1 and the T-Mobile myTouch are two of them, while the others are the Motorola CLIQ, which has just been launched by the company, and the Samsung Behold II, which should land in the near future.