PayPal For Android Adds 'Bump Technology'PayPal For Android Adds 'Bump Technology'

PayPal has released a second version of its payment application for Android smartphones, adding the ability to send money between phones by simply tapping the two devices together.

The new feature is the same "bump technology" that PayPal has offered in its mobile app for Apple's iPhone. Another iPhone feature added to the Android app lets groups calculate the portion of a restaurant bill each person owes, and then reimburse on the spot the person paying the tab.

The latest features reflect PayPal's continued expansion of its payment service into mobile phones, which PayPal customers are increasingly using to pay bills. Over the last six months, PayPal has recorded twice the mobile payment volume than it saw during all of 2009, according to the eBay-owned company.

"We expect to close out the year with over a half a billion dollars of mobile payment volume," Laura Chambers, senior director of PayPal mobile, said Thursday on the company blog.

Smartphones using Google's Android operating system are manufactured by a variety of handset makers, including HTC, Motorola and Samsung. Sales of Android phones are soaring and expected to surpass iPhone sales by 2012, according to market researcher iSuppli.

Driving sales of both devices is the wide variety of third-party applications, such as PayPal's, available for download. While many more applications are available for the iPhone through Apple's App Store, the number of app available through the Android Market is increasing rapidly. The NPD Group reported this week that Android in the second quarter became the leading smartphone OS in the United States, toppling Research In Motion's BlackBerry OS. Apple's iOS, which is used in the iPhone, was third.

PayPal's Android and iPhone applications are available at no charge through the platform's respective online stores.