Optus Mobile Application Store Lets You Buy With Your Bill
Australians get something of a raw deal with mobile phone app stores — Apple skips applications apparently at random, BlackBerry skipped Australia altogether — so Optus’ introduction of a dedicated mobile app store is good news, at least if you’re already an Optus customer.
The Optus Mobile Application Store sells applications for a variety of handsets, including BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Java models. (It’s no surprise that the iPhone isn’t part of the package, given Apple’s take-no-prisoners approach to selling apps.) Applications that are purchased are added directly to your mobile bill, which is a relatively straightforward way of doing it.
I’m not armed with an Optus mobile, so I haven’t checked how the app works in practice; if you do give it a whirl (text APP to 966 to get a link), tell us about it in the comments.
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Comments
I texted APP to 966 but nothing yet, if it does eventually come through I’ll let you know.
Btw, I have an optus plan with a HTC Dream…
I bought an Android handset with Optus the day they launched, and have been wondering ever since why I can’t get paid applications in the Android marketplace.
I haven’t been able to actually get the application yet – no response to my SMS sent half an hour ago and the app icon in their MyZoo portal is a broken link. So I have no idea yet how their app compares to the standard market app in terms of useability, or if they’re going to be carrying the same range of applications that are in Google’s marketplace. But I’m not holding my breath. :-/
Texted as suggested.
No link sent.
Tried poking around Optus Zoo. Nada.
“Mobile application” in the search field does not return any useful results.
Anyone?
I have nothing but contempt for Optus. The comments so far just confirm how useless they are.
Hi guys, the direct link to enter into your handset’s browser is http://www.optus.com.au/appstore – let me know if you have any issues/feedback, happy to hear it.
James – sorry to hear you had an issue with the SMS – both SMS and the Dream are testing OK at our end, so let me know if it’s still not working and I’ll investigate further.
Peter/Jono – if problems persist, can you let me know what handsets you’re using?
Problems persist.
That link redirects to the optuszoo homepage, which does not contain the app store.
I have an HTC hero running android 1.6
OK – apologies for that. We’ve found the issue that’s blocking the Hero from accessing the App Store. Our guys are working on a fix, I’ll let you know when that’s done. Thanks!
Its pretty funny that paid apps work on Telstra yet they aren’t selling any android phones!!!!
I just download MarketEnabler (need root) and tell my phone thats its with Telstra (even tho im with optus) and paid apps work fine.
http://code.google.com/p/market-enabler/downloads/list