Revolution or Another Fail…!
Google Wallet officially launched on 19th this month after being announced several months ago as a way for people to use their mobile phones to pay for goods. Google Wallet works on Near Field Technology (NFC). The Samsung Nexus S for Sprint Nextel is currently the only smart phone supported due to hardware limitations, but as phones grow more advanced, Google Wallet will become a better service for mobile payments. Google Wallet is taught to be the revolution in how we pay. As per the Google Wallet vision,
In the past few thousand years, the way we pay has changed just three times—from coins, to paper money, to plastic cards. Now we’re on the brink of the next big shift.
Most credit companies have announced some form of digital wallet to be released in the near future, but Google is the first to make their wallet service publicly available, even in a limited means. Current launch partners include Sprint, Citibank, and Mastercard, which means the service is currently only available to consumers who have Citibank MasterCards in credit and debit form. To get around this limitation and reach out to a broader audience, Google also offers a Google Prepaid MasterCard that can be loaded using any credit card in the user’s arsenal.
While Sprint is the official launch partner, other Android smartphones that are capable of using near-field communications technology will be able to use Google Wallet in the future. The NFC technology used in Google Wallet was licensed from other credit card companies, including Visa, Discover, and American Express which means these cards will be supported in the digital wallet at some point within the future. Google has stated that their prepaid MasterCard option will be available even after these cards are officially supported as well.
Google’s ultimate goal with the launch of Google Wallet is to help users do away with the need to carry their hard copy financial information around in their pockets. The only downside to this launch and announcement is that Google refuses to comment on when other partners aside from the launch partners will make their way onto the service. John Partridge, the president of Visa speculates that it could take Google months to work out the agreements with other credit companies. “What has to happen next is that the banks have to have to agree to give access to their payment credentials,” he said. “Those discussions are already under way. But in terms of logistics, I’d say it’s a matter of months. Not a long period of time.”
How Google Wallet Works
For users, Google Wallet is pretty simplistic. Any phone equipped with an NFC chip will be able to communicate with various devices at short distances. As an example, Google Wallet should function completely perfectly with MasterCard’s PayPass terminals which are available at more than 144,000 locations across the country. To make tracking these terminals down easier for consumers, MasterCard has released a free Android app for finding PayPass terminals.
All new Nexus S devices that will be sold in the future will come equipped with the Google Wallet app already loaded and ready for the user. Current Nexus S users will receive an over the air update within a few days in order to activate the functionality on the phone. For everyone who gets started using Google Wallet in its early phase, Google is offering $10 directly into the Wallet.
Plans for Google Wallet go well beyond just using it for payments. Google hopes that many retailers will embrace the idea of Google Offers, which is a service that will go hand in hand with the wallet service and allow customer loyalty cards to be entered into the wallet. The Offers program will be able to track frequent shopping locations and sent customers coupons and special deals for retailers at which they frequently shop.
Currently, Google Wallet is only available on the Android platform and only for Sprint users. The current iPhone 4 does not have the necessary NFC technology embedded to take advantage of Google Wallet, but rumors surrounding the upcoming iPhone announcement speculate that the new device will be compatible with the technology. Whether or not Apple will play nice with Google or develop their own in-house digital wallet remains to be seen, but iTunes and the App Store are definitely the perfect marketplaces for such a payment option.
The Big Question
The question remains the same, will it be another currency revolution as Google believes? Only time will tell. But looking at track record of Google in its new ventures, doubt is in the air. Do you still remember the “Google Wave” which once proclaimed to revolutionize how we communicate. Many even went further saying that Wave will replace the traditional Email. Google Wave came like just another sea wave and vanished badly. Then came Google TV ( if you somehow knew it ). Hollywood kicked them hard and moved out of circle. And recently in the news is Google Plus. Again with revolutionizing(!!!) approach to social networking. Latest news is even Google co-founder Larry Page has stopped using Google Plus!
Only time will tell whether Google will succeed in its new venture Google Wallet. Getting into people’s wallet is not that simple. Changing habits of thousand of years is monolith task.
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