It’s rapidly becoming a prerequisite of all game studios, carriers and mobile manufacturers to have some form of online, on-device digital distribution system, and Vodafone is now set to unveil its own app store.

The mobile giant is to provide software houses with the system to access its 289 million customers. It’ll be following Apple’s lead in taking a 30 per cent share of revenues, and passing the remaining 70 per cent directly to the developer. It’ll also handle the billing operations by allocating charges directly to the user’s phone bill, making for an accessible payment system.

Software vendors will also have access to network data, allowing them to provide location-specific content once the system has been rolled out to the UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Greece, Portugal and Ireland by the end of the year, with more to follow afterwards.

The billing and location awareness are major factors in Vodafone’s app store that few other systems are able to provide, including the recently launched Ovi Store from Nokia.

Coupled with the anonymously collected network access data, Vodafone’s system shows a great deal of potential for online software distribution that’s sure to catch the eye of mobile developers.