RIM, following Apple who introduced in-app purchases 1.5 year ago, introduced a Payment Service SDK to enable in-app payments. As we showed in our latest report, in the Apple App Store for iPhone in the United States, almost 50% of the revenue of the top grossing applications was generated by applications carrying in-app purchases. For developers this enables a range of opportunities to sell premium features and content but RIM also opposed several restriction limiting developers. The restrictions include selling virtual currencies or in-app credits, selling physical goods or services and selling digital goods used across multiple applications. For pricing, the same tiers as applicable to BlackBerry App World can be used.

According to RIM, the Payment Service provides a similar payment experience as going in BlackBerry App World. Consumers can, provided they have a BlackBerry ID, apply various payment methods, including credit card, PayPal® and carrier billing. The SDK seems to have been available since the 5th of January (BlackBerry’s developer site), but the first applications incorporating the new functionalities still have to hit BlackBerry App World. So far we did not see any notable changes in the storefront of BlackBerry App World, but we will keep you posted when the first applications do appear. We will also keep track of the take-off and are curious to see whether the success in the Apple App Store can be replicable by other stores.

by Gert Jan Spriensma.