James Delahunty
11 Mar 2012 9:22
Google reportedly warning app developers.
It was reported that the search giant threatened to remove developers' software from its store unless they accepted payments exclusively using Google's payment service. While developers for Apple's Store have no choice but to use Apple's iTunes payment service, apps for Android often accept from a variety of sources, such as PayPal.
Recently, the Android Market was absorbed into Google Play, a music, movies and app store similar to iTunes. After this changes, reports that Google had changed its payment policies and was now threatening app developers emerged.
Google told the BBC that it has not changed its policies for Android apps, and that the distribution agreement always made developers use the Google Wallet service. It did not reveal whether it has started to enforce that requirement.
The Android Market / Google Play does allow for in-ap purchases to be made using alternative payment services. This means that, for example, Amazon does not have to sue Google Wallet and give Google a cut for every item it sells with its Android app.