Palm Pre App Catalog to use credit cards for purchases

One of the most important aspects of application stores is their billing method. The mobile platform has survived quite happily by adding purchases to a user's mobile bill, but that's not an easy relationship for a handset manufacturer to establish with the different carriers around the world.

This is one of the reasons iTunes has proven so successful, as Apple's gateway has provided a direct billing system between developers and users. Until now, it's been unclear which route Palm intended to take with its App Catalog, though Endgadget reports it'll allow users to enter credit card details directly.

In many respects this is much like iTunes, which links a user's account to a specific payment card, as the card details will be stored within the Palm profile rather than the phone itself. Pre users will then only be required to enter their password to make the purchase, much like the iPhone.

The billing system update comes with version 1.2.0 of the Pre's firmware, and apparently now includes the option to buy music directly from Amazon even over the 3G network.