The number of Android phone is growing fast, with Google saying it's now activating 160,000 devices daily.

The biggest issue for developers is the Android Market however, both in terms of app discovery - something that's also an issue on the Apple App Store (if for different reasons) - and more importantly payment methods.

With Google Checkout offering a limited solution, and one that only works in a handful of countries at present, it's not a surprise that the growing number of thirdparty solutions are gaining popularity.

New ways to pay

One such comes from PayPal, which launched its Mobile Payments Library for Android in mid May.

Talking to Bloomberg News, Osama Bedier, a PayPal vice president, said the tool had been downloaded over 1,000 times within those three weeks. Significantly most of the developers were said to be Chinese.

Indeed, China and emerging markets are seen as being key to Android's longterm success, thanks to support for the OS from low cost companies such as LG, Huawei and potentially Taiwanese chip maker MediaTek.

Google's vice president for engineering Andy Rubin is bullish about the situation.

"The down-market opportunity is about to happen. It's actually quite a revolution," he said. 

[source: The New York Times]