The German carrier Deutsche Telekom will be partnering with the popular note-taking app Evernote (News - Alert).

Subscribers will be able to sign up for a free year of Evernote’s premium version, which normally costs $5 per month or $45 per year. Subscribers who have already purchased the premium option will also get a free year of premium service.

Evernote allows users to take notes, clip webpages and snap photos for later viewing, serving as an extension of a user’s memory on mobile devices, PCs and the Web. The premium version offers 1 GB per month of storage space, the ability to view notebooks offline, document search and a host of other features.

“We’re excited to announce our new partnership with Deutsche Telekom in Germany, which marks a major milestone for Evernote. Through this partnership, nearly 60 million Deutsche Telekom mobile, broadband and fixed-line customers in Germany will be eligible to receive 1-year of Evernote Premium,” the company announced in a blog post.

“At Deutsche Telekom, we count on partnerships to pave the way for innovations," said Heikki Makijarvi, SVP Business Development and Venturing. "Our goal is to offer highly innovative and unique services with the easiest access possible. The cooperation with Evernote is an excellent example of two companies combining their strengths for the benefit of our customers."

The deal also marks a significant change in the way carriers approach application providers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In the past, carriers have preferred to leave the customers to their own mobile devices, leaving the installation of apps up to them.

However, the growth of Internet-cable handsets has led customers to use Internet applications such as Skype (News - Alert) and consequently make fewer voice calls and texts, causing carrier revenue to drop.

One way to attract more customers is by having attractive apps. In addition to Evernote, Deutsche Telekom has signed a deal with Spotify (News - Alert), giving subscribers free access to the Swedish streaming music service that normally requires a premium plan for mobile access.

“There is a need to move away from pricing which is per-minute or per-text, to bundles,” Charlotte Patrick, a research director at Gartner (News - Alert), told The Wall Street Journal. “This [the Evernote deal] is an example of a simple deal which is just reselling other people’s services, but which goes to make their bundle more attractive.”

Evernote has also signed a deal to offer premium service to subscribers of the Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo (News - Alert), as well as Taiwan Mobile.