Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has iTunes as the billing mechanism on the App Store, RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) has partnered with PayPal for BlackBerry and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) uses its own check-out platform. For Palm? It has decided to go down its own road and has picked credit cards.
The revelation comes with today’s release of the updated webOS 1.2.0, reports Engadget. But the fine print on Palm’s site says that among other things, songs can now be purchased from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) MP3 over a phone network connection (rather than only Wi-Fi), and “in preparation for e-commerce in the App Catalog, to purchase apps, you can enter credit card information.” The information is stored with the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) profile, not on the phone, and users can choose to enter their Palm profile password each time they make a purchase, or for the first purchase in any four-hour window.
There’s been some debate as to how these alternative billing methods can do compared to something that’s relatively simple, like carrier billing. Of course, Apple has been wildly successful with the iPhone because while there’s only 50 million iPhone and iPod Touch users today, there’s 100 million iTunes accounts that are connected to credit cards, which creates an insanely low barrier to entry. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has said before that when they move from credit card billing to operator billing, they see a 70 percent lift in sales.

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