Samsung enables 1-click purchases for app store
Smartphone giant now lets users pay via their phone bills. No credit card necessary.
If you own a Samsung smartphone, you can now buy apps from the Samsung Galaxy App store with a single click and charge it directly to your phone bill, thanks to a new agreement between Samsung and mobile payments company Bango.
This global 1-click purchase arrangement, announced by Bango on Wednesday, allows users to buy digital goods from the little-known Samsung Galaxy Apps store with one click.
Samsung is following in the footsteps of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Blackberry, which have all partnered with Bango. The UK company serves more than 1.5 billion customers and lets smartphone users pay for charges through their wireless-carrier bill.
The Samsung Galaxy App store doesn't compete against the widely popular Google Play store, which has more than 1 million apps. Instead, Samsung focuses on apps that take advantage of its hardware, like apps for the S Pen stylus used with the Galaxy Note line of smartphones. The South Korean company has acknowledged that its app store isn't easy to work with and needs better software development kits, application programming interfaces and general developer support.
Though it will likely take more than just an easy-payment option to fix these issues, options like 1-click and carrier billing should make it easier and more convenient for consumers to buy those apps from their mobile devices.