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Google May Embed PayPal in Android OS
[August 17, 2010]

Google May Embed PayPal in Android OS


TMCnet Contributing Editor
 
According to Mobile Business Briefing, PayPal "is reported to be in talks with Google to embed its payments platform in the Android (News - Alert) operating system."


 
Evidently Bloomberg (News - Alert) mentioned this on Friday, but nobody's commenting on the unconfirmed talks. What the upshot might, be, however, according to MBB, is that "users of Android phones may be able to pay for apps with PayPal as soon as this year," instead of having to use credit cards or Google's (News - Alert) Checkout.

 
Industry observer David Murphy says that it won't necessarily make things move all that much faster -- "Google Checkout is, after all, is still a fairly convenient method for purchasing applications," it does "help Google attract users who, for whatever reason, have simply opted not to use Google's single payment service for their purchases."
 
And as MBB correctly surmises, the move "would be a huge boost to both Android Market and PayPal," what with PayPal's 87 million active accounts making it easier to get paid it might even encourage folks to make more apps for Android, which currently has about one-fourth of Apple's (News - Alert) 225,000 apps.
 
'As an Android user, I'd certainly be more inclined to buy apps from the Android Market if PayPal was a payment option,' writes Intomobile's Marc Flores. 'Make it a one-click feature and perhaps I'll even go nuts loading my EVO 4G with new applications.'
 
According to the research firm Gartner, Murphy says, Google's Android operating system "is now the most popular piece of smartphone software in the United States."
 
What a difference a year makes: Sales of Android-based devices currently "rank third of any smartphone in the world in 2010 thus far, behind RIM and Symbian's (News - Alert) respective sales of 11.2 million and 22.3 million units," with Apple's iPhone sales fourth at 8.7 million, or a market share of 14.2 percent to Android's 17.2 percent.
 
Last year, as Murphy notes, "Apple commanded 13 percent of the market to Android's 1.8, and Symbian carried the majority market share at 51 percent."
 

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David's articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.

Edited by Erin Monda

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