If you want to pick up a new app on an Android-based smartphone, you have one option with which to pay for your new purchase: Credit cards and Google Checkout. At least, for now, sources indicate that Google is chatting with eBay’s PayPal business to bring the latter as a secondary option for smartphone-based payments.
Android mobile phone users are expected to buy fastest to use PayPal application during this year. Through the integration of PayPal, Google is expected to attract more paying buyers. PayPal currently has 87 million active accounts.
Integrating Paypal would open up Android phones to the service’s 87 million active accounts, which would surely go a long way toward increasing the propensity of a user to pick up a new application on a whim, especially if the Paypal service is integrated into the mobile operating system in a similar style to how purchases work on Apple’s App Store.
PayPal and Google spokesman did not respond to messages for comment. Informed sources said the two companies are still negotiating, but not necessarily meeting the agreement.
According to the research firm Gartner, Google’s Android operating system is now the most popular piece of smartphone software in the United States. Sales of Android-based devices rank third of any smartphone in the world in 2010 thus far, nestled behind RIM and Symbian’s respective sales of 11.2 million and 22.3 million units. Apple’s iPhone sales rank fourth at 8.7 million, or a market share of 14.2 percent to Android’s 17.2 percent.
Apple iTunes users can purchase a key application, because their payment information already stored in Apple’s system. Google also provides similar services through the Checkout, but not as popular as iTunes and PayPal, which gives users some new obstacles.PayPal last quarter added 1 million users per month, contributing to 37% of eBay sales. PayPal previous quarter net income grew 22% to 817 million U.S. dollars.
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