Buying apps in the market is pretty commonplace, with the full market now available to all 2.0+ users. Some weeks I will put my $.99 to as many as 5-6 apps, and I know i’m not the only one. With some apps, however, the $$$ can’t stop at the front door. Shopping inside the app is a must for apps like Aeria, where you  buy virtual goods for your avatar, to exist. With more customers buying apps, and more apps requiring their own internal purchasing system, it becomes a question of how, or rather, which way is easiest for my user?  As a user, would you rather the expense show up on your cell phone bill, or just use Google Checkout? As a Developer, are you likely to include other payment options, and deal with the consequences in order to provide a more complete app? These are the questions that need an answer in order to decide whether the new checkout system, Boku, will find a home in Android or not.

Boku has created Paymo, a 1click payment gateway for Android that can be used for any purchase, provided the developer uses the Boku API in the app. While some may view this as yet another thing that requires a login and password, it does provide a simple and easy to use payment method in app – something Google Checkout does not currently make easy for developers – since there is no API. That’s not to say it’s impossible, but it’s not nearly as easy as Boku.

Additionally, Boku allows you to push the payment onto your cell phone bill. This is where things got alittle concerning for me. if the charge shows up on the bill, how do refunds happen? Is the carrier now involved? What kind of support/responsibility now comes to the carrier with this dollar amount on the bill? Most importantly, how does this affect the developer getting paid? Boku is new, so i don’t know any developers ready to attach it to their apps. Also, if this get’s popular, will Google respond with an API of their own?

This piece is far from over. Personally i want some answers to these questions, but the guys at Boku have yet to respond to me. In the mean time, what do you guys/gals/devs think?