Gideon Edie Purnomo, Head of VAS, Applications and Device Management Group Telkomsel, says that the Android paid app download ratio through Telkomsel is only around 5%. Of 100 apps downloaded, only 5 are paid apps. Though so few, the number is a progress.
Meanwhile, the number of Android device is increasing rapidly during the last year. Today, the number of Android user Telkomsel customer reaches 2.5 million devices. This number is 15 times the number of last year which only 170 thousands devices. By the end of this year, Telkomsel targets that this number will continue to increase to 5 million devices.
Other than there are many producers which brought Android in to their cell phones, Gideon thinks that the rapid growth of Android user is also caused by the price of Android device that has become more affordable. Once, it was IDR6 million, now an Android smartphone is available for purchase for only IDR2 million.
This means that the growth of Android user is shifting to the lower economy class. Because this kind of user usually doesn’t have a credit card, we can roughly conclude that the percentage of Android user who owns a credit card is lessening. Meanwhile, credit card is (currently) the only way to buy apps on Google Play.
The correlation of cheaper Android smartphone – target of Android user leads to middle-low class – percentage of Android user who owns credit card is lessening – low priced app sale supposed to demand an urgent cooperation between local operator and Google Play. This is to accommodate middle-low class Android user (which is the majority of Android user) whi wants to maximize their cell phone’s ability by purchasing paid app on Google Play.
Google Play can take an example from Nokia Store Indonesia which cooperated with several local operators for app and content purchasing. Although featured phone user may be in the lower class of economy than Android user, including students, but the purchase of game for featured phone through Nokia Store still in. This is based on the easiness for user to buy those apps using credit cutting scheme.
The factor of wanting to get an app in easy and hassle-free way also makes many Android smartphone users looking for bootlegged app (unofficial paid app). Because they don’t have credit card, the only way for them to be able to enjoy the paid app is looking for the bootlegged version on the internet. When this “wall” is to be broken down, by giving easier way to buy app, I think many users prefer to buy official paid app because it’s safer than the bootlegged version.
