Paid-for applications will finally be available to Europe’s Pre smartphone owners within two months, Palm has confirmed.

The Pre’s “e-commerce program” – which already allows US-based Pre owners to download both free and paid-for applications – goes live across Europe in March.

The announcement means users will be able to cough up for applications offering, presumably, a little more functionality than their free counterparts. Developers, on the other hand, will also be able to make some cash off the back of Palm’s Pre.

How quickly the Pre app store will fill up with paid-for applications is unknown. The store currently contains about 600 paid-for apps – a figure that pales in comparison to huge number of paid-for applications already available for the iPhone through Apple’s App Store.

Developer information about how to submit Pre applications to Palm is available online now. ®