Looking to start bringing in significant revenue with its newest project, Google announced that it is now accepting paid applications into its Android Market mobile app store. The move is expected to provide some competition to Apple’s App Store.

The innitial plan for Android Market was to only deliver free applications. Still, the company’s officials thought it through and decided that it would be a much better business move to include this new feature, which will be available starting with the middle of next week.

The payment and billing mechanism chosen for the service is Google Checkout, and Android-based G1 users will be able to check out the paid apps next week, apps which will be accepted for now only from US and UK developers. Google announced that France, Austria, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands will also be added, no longer than March.

According to a statement released by a Google spokeswoman, there are currently more than 1,000 applications that run on Android smartphones.

This move is expected to significantly boost the phone’s sales, and also help the upcoming Android-based releases. The overall sales results for the mobile phone market might be slightly declining, but the smartphone segment is going strong, as it registered a 22.5 percent increase in 2008’s fouth quarter, according to a study completed by research firm Gartner.

Applications represent an important part of any smartphone, with users carefully looking at the available apps before deciding on a buying a certain device. Opening up the service will surely bring in a large number of developers looking to make their work known.