With games such as Freeverse's Flick Fishing and ngmoco's Eliminate out on the App Store, the momentum for in-app micro-transactions is building fast.

But while Apple provides its APIs, there are also plenty of large companies with experience from the PC online space who can offer a more more streamlined entry point.

And as well as plugging into the App Store, this should futureproof developers and publishers to whatever Apple decides to do next.

One such is US outfit Live Gamer, which raised $24 million of investment in 2007, and this summer has bought out Korean outfit N-Cash and US company Twofish to boost its micro-transactional reach.

Its platform is used by the likes of Acclaim, InstantAction, Funcom, GoPets, and Sony Online Entertainment, and is extending into the mobile market, too.

We caught up with president and co-founder Andrew Schneider to find out more.

Pocket Gamer: How does the mobile market for micro-transactions differ from the online market?

Andrew Schneider: Each platform has its unique strengths, use cases, and purposes so naturally the market does differ somewhat but in regards to micro-transactions, mobile provides a significant opportunity and is posed to rapidly catch up with the PC-based online market.

The influx of more smartphones onto the market, and people's tendency to use their phones more and more as they would a computer, means we expect to see the divide narrow very quickly.

How does Live Gamer enable mobile developers and publishers to monetise their players?

Live Gamer gives publishers a total commerce solution to create virtual economies and enable micro-payments. We also provide developers with extremely deep analytics, giving them a clear picture of what's working within their application and the tools to optimise.

It's all about user experience. If a publisher offers virtual goods and services that the user enjoys - and demands - then naturally those users will be eager to pay into the system for the experience and entertainment value they're getting back out of it.

Do you think there are significance differences in terms of how micro-transactions are viewed in different territories?

Asia has been ahead of the curve for nearly a decade and there is much to learn from that market. The free-to-play item-based model emerged in Korea and China out of necessity and opportunity.

For example, PCs rather than consoles dominate gaming in both markets, and there's a strong PC-café culture with an emphasis on real community as an extension of virtual community that drives a comfort level for social networking and the items that differentiate one's virtual self within the online community.

Of course there's also a significant high-speed broadband penetration, specifically in Korea, and difficulties with intellectual property protection have rendered the plastic shiny disk business model nearly obsolete.

Thus the games-as-a service model was born, initially backed by the subscription model, but as game popularity expanded demographically, the free-to-play item-based business model began to dominate, yielding exponential user and revenue growth for publishers and developers.

Our team based in Seoul (N-Cash) actually powered the first item-based game in Korea in 2001 - a title called GerSang from Joyon.

The US is still console-centric and publishers rely on packaged goods sales to drive earnings. It's early days for the broader US game market to transition to pure online models but in the past 12 months we've seen explosive growth for micro-transactions on PCs, among a young demographic, connected via broadband, who are comfortable with social networks and virtual communities.

As high-speed broadband continues to roll out, we're going see the intellectual property exploitation in the game industry in the same way we saw it in the music industry. Publishers will need to embrace games-as-a-service and will need do so pro actively. The micro-transactions/item-based model provides the method of monetisation.

How small can your micro-transactions be?

After the initial cash-in-to-virtual currency conversion, a transaction can be pennies.

What do you think are the opportunities for Live Gamer with iPhone because developers can do this themselves on the App Store?

Live Gamer provides technology to enable micro-transactions, item sales within an app, content management, analytics and much more.

We work in conjunction with distribution outlets and payment gateways.

What do you think will be the impact of Apple's recent decision to enable free apps to include micro-transactions?

Allowing micro-transactions within free apps is a significant step forward for all participants in the iPhone ecosystem and represents a great opportunity for developers.

But there is still work to be done. For instance, virtual currency systems for sub-99c transactions still need to be enabled if the mobile community wants to leverage what has been proven to work in the online PC/social gaming space.

Why do you think Apple still doesn't allow support for real money purchasing of virtual currency?

Wouldn't we all like to know what Apple's got in mind? But more seriously, this may just be the first step - testing the system out with free-to-play games first.

What do you think are the best practices that mobile developers and publishers should be following?

Outside of fun and engaging gameplay, the two critical factors for a successful virtual economy are a well crafted item strategy and robust social display and interaction. Plan for these and then decide if you're going to dedicate resources from within your company or find a thirdparty provider like Live Gamer.

Most publishers would rather focus on game design, marketing and community management and simply don't have the time or resources to create a dynamic, effective virtual economy, manage it, keep an eye on fraud potential, or have the metrics behind it to optimise margins.

Micro-transactions are our business. We provide a simple way to build a virtual economy in literally just hours, and go far beyond a simple cash-in functionality to more advanced merchandising for virtual goods.

Thanks to Andrew for his time.

You can keep up-to-date with what's going on at Live Gamer via its website and blog.