Vodafone launches carrier billing for Android Market in UK and Germany

Users will be able to charge app and game purchases direct to their phone bills.

Vodafone has launched carrier billing for Google's Android Market in the UK and Germany, allowing its Android customers to pay for apps and games using their Vodafone accounts.

It's a limited rollout for now: initially only people who bought their handsets from Vodafone's online and retail stores will be able to take advantage of the new feature.

Vodafone says it will be expanding the feature to other markets "soon", but has given no further details of when or which countries specifically.

Billing has been one of Android Market's perceived weak points since its launch, since the store uses Google's own Google Checkout payment system. Operator billing has the potential to bring the store more into line with the easy purchasing path on Apple's rival App Store.

Vodafone says it is the first carrier in Europe to launch operator billing for Android Market, but Google is thought to be negotiating deals wherever possible to bring this feature to its store on other operators.