Google has finally gotten around to rolling out support for in-app billing through the Android Market. That means developers can sell subscriptions to news or media applications and collect payment through Google. It also means that apps can allow users to purchase goods within the app without relying on an outside service to collect payment.

As part of the launch, the popular Tap Tap Revenge video game is now available for Android. ComiXology is now using in-app payments to charge for purchases of comic book issues. And a number of games are available with support for in-app purchases that allow you to purchase virtual goods or upgrades.

The folks at AppBrain have put together a page allowing you to track the top apps which support in-app billing. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure why you’d want to filter apps in the Android Market by their support for this feature, but there are at least two reasons in-app billing is important. First, it makes the process of paying for all sorts of content on an Android device a lot simpler for users. Second, it means that developers who rely on in-app purchases to make money with their iOS apps have an incentive to bring their mobile apps to the Android market.

Brad Linder

Brad Linder is editor of Liliputing and Mobiputing. He's been tinkering with mobile tech for decades and writing about it since...