Google Play's Carrier Billing Scheme Eventually Will Come to Almost All GSM Operators This Year

Yesterday, we informed the availability of Telkomsel's carrier billing setting for Google Play. We get confirmation from multiple sources that by this year almost all GSM operators in Indonesia will have similar feature, including XL Axiata (XL), Indosat and AXIS. The only one left, at the moment, will be Tri Indonesia -- the joint venture that just got new investment from local consortium led by Garibaldi Thohir.

We've already heard the statement from XL exec that XL will carry this feature on Q1 2013, but apparently it was Telkomsel who realizes it first. Android has been projecting to gain high growth in Indonesia this year, following BlackBerry's turmoil last year on moving on to BlackBerry 10. The growth won't stop this year as number of manufacturers are already targeting Indonesia as their new market, like Lenovo and Oppo. Samsung and Sony are still leading the pack.

What we are going to see is the easiness on buying new paid app in Google Play as it will be billed directly to consumer's credit (for prepaid users) or billing statement (for postpaid users). Still, Android users globally are known not as enthusiastic as iOS counterpart in buying paid apps. It remains to be seen if this move will be a huge incentive for Indonesian consumers to spend more money on apps and games. Music, movie and book contents are yet to be available in local Google Play Store.

This good news, however, will not really be satisfying for Indonesian developers. It still won't accepting any local paid app, so the only way on publishing paid apps or games are by using global account. This will be difficult for those targeting local audience, e.g using Indonesian and not using English.

Embracing developers will be another Google's homework. Nowadays, it's the availability of high profile apps that shape the platform, not the other way around. While Android is still the most popular smartphone platform, history always show there's nothing last forever. Google should overcome this matter to ensure everybody is happy.