PayPal to open application store

Internet company PayPal has announced plans to open an application storefront in an effort to court developer business and further its online payment system. The company’s plan includes an application store and payment system for both mobile and desktop applications. “I want developers to think of PayPal first whenever they hear the word ‘payments’ and I want to know what it will take to get there. We’re willing to do it. We’re willing to innovate and experiment on their behalf and hear their feedback,” said Osama Bedier, PayPal’s vice president of Platform Business Unit and Emerging Technologies, while speaking at the Future of Web Apps conference. Bedier continued: “The wallet should live in the cloud… Entering credit card information into a mobile device is the worst user experience ever.” It will be interesting to see how a mobile application store would play out. We can assume that Apple isn’t going to let PayPal just waltz in on its cash cow — do we feel a PayPal application ban coming from the iTunes App Store? — and Android’s market is already, for the most part, wide open to developers. Nokia has Ovi, BlackBerry has App World, and Microsoft has Windows Marketplace. What are your thoughts?  Is PayPal a little too late to the game to make a significant impact? It’s worth noting that RIM’s App World is already exclusively using PayPal for payments.

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