It was only a couple of weeks ago that the Android Market got a fresh new look to better show off its over 100,000 applications, but Google isn't done upgrading their app storefront just yet. AT&T has notoriously blocked the ability to sideload apps on its Android devices, but now AT&T Android users have a feature to hang over the heads of their Verizon and Sprint friends: carrier billing in the Market. T-Mobile customers have had the feature for some time, but now Android owners on AT&T can now choose to purchase apps and charge them directly to their monthly bill. Google also added several new app categories to the Market: “Media & Video”, “Music & Audio”, “Business”, “Sports” (in the "Games" section), and several others.
Carrier billing may not be new to the Android scene, but it's good to see Google expanding the feature to include other carriers. It's kind of strange that Sprint and Verizon are being left out of the mix, but I'm sure that we'll see them get the new payment option at some point in the future. Are there any of you out there that currently use carrier billing on the Android Market? Would you use the feature if it came to your handset, or are your monthly bills high enough already?
