So you know those mobile phone ads on tv that you can seemingly get a single ring tone, a horoscope, match your name with someone elses, etc, but it turns out that it’s a subscription service for anywhere from $10 to $30 a week requiring multiple messages for anywhere from $3 to $6 per single sms?
Ofcourse you do. Well guess what. Now they exist on the web.
Look for any sort of flash ad which has a tiny barely ledgible text saying “subscription required” and you can bet your bottom dollar that you need to use your mobile phone to get what ever it is they are selling.
I suppose on the plus side it gives almost everyone access to micro payments over the web. On the downside most of these things give you basically nothing, or atleast nothing better than you could get for free somewhere else on the net, and charge you an arm and a leg for it. In essence your getting fleeced.
So sadly while mobile phones make a semi awesome micropayment system for values between $2 to $6 anyone who asks you for payment via your mobile phone isn’t worth buying from.
I ofcourse have no idea what your mobile phone providers cut is for these premium priced smss. Perhaps thats the problem in that they charge way too much. Thus any legitimate business would be handing over way too much of their revenue forcing them out of business. It would also explain why they haven’t clamped down on them.