PalmSource, the OS subsidiary of Palm (Quote, Company Info), brewed up a new distribution system for its Palm OS applications through an alliance with QUALCOMM (Quote, Company Info) Tuesday through which they will enable over-the-air downloads for Palm Powered devices over QUALCOMM's Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW).

The two announced the memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the CTIA Wireless 2003 show in New Orleans.

The BREW (define) Distribution System (BDS) manages over-the-air delivery, billing and payment of wireless applications, supporting Palm's efforts to bring its OS to wider attention in the smartphone market.

"Enabling Palm Powered devices with the BDS will provide operators with a compelling way to differentiate their services and increase revenue, and will give them access to the world's largest library of Palm OS applications," said David Nagel, president and CEO of PalmSource.

That library includes more than 17,000 commercial applications and 10,000 eBooks, according to Palm.