Carrier Billing Comes to BlackBerry App World in 2010

Research in Motion CEO Jim Balsillie says BlackBerry App World will start offering carrier billing sometime next year. The announcement came at the BlackBerry Developer Conference this week.

It comes as welcome news for customers who buy apps for their phones. Right now, users must have a PayPal account. Carrier billing would bypass that and make one less step for consumers.

RIM made another handful of announcements that could beef up its app store, including new advertising space for developers, which makes it simpler to integrate apps with ads. BlackBerry App World has about 2,500 applications compared to about 100,000 in the Apple App store.