Telenor partners with Google to introduce global Android Market

Telenor Group today (Wednesday) announced its partnership with Google to launch a store-in-store to access a selected suite of relevant apps  for Telenor’s subscribers who use Android on a fixed destination on the front page of Android Market.

As part of this agreement, Telenor subscribers in all 11 operating countries will be able to pay for apps via their mobile operator. This will make payments easier, specially for markets with a low credit card penetration. Local developers will also benefit by the enhanced exposure of their apps and get increased revenues.

The agreement covers all of Telenor’s 11 international markets, with an initial launch in the first quarter 2012 in Thailand, Malaysia, Hungary, Sweden and Denmark.

Telenor customers Pakistan will be provided this services later in the year 2012.

The deal is meant to cater the demand for mobile content in European markets as well as in fast-growing markets of Asia. While smartphone usage might be lower on a percentage basis in Asia, they beat the European countries when it comes to the number of mobile phone users.

An editorial team in each country will be responsible for selecting and presenting up to 50 apps – with a local relevance.

According to stats, 70 per cent users prefer operator billing over credit card when it comes to buying apps.

A version of this post originally appeared on ProPakistani.