The uptake of smartphones by consumers will act as an important trigger for mobile payments services in developed countries, claims PayPal.

Whereas SMS and WAP were initially promoted as suitable platforms for financial transactions, Eric Deprat, general manager for mobile at PayPal, now believes the large-screen capabilities of the latest smartphones will significantly boost the widespread use of mobile transactions.

“We have observed significant growth in the use of the mobile PayPal service since we launched our iPhone application,” said Deprat. “We expect this usage to climb further when we unveil the PayPal app for the Android platform and other smartphones.”