What you need to know about the Google Wallet

Overview

Google Wallet, a smartphone payment system, heralds the promising revolution in future payment technologies. Google Wallet, a feature that is only available on Google Nexus S 4G smartphone now, is meant to replace your card payments with the mobile payments. At the checkouts in stores, now you can just swipe your smartphone, instead of a debit or credit card. Thanks to the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, the phone will deliver cash from your bank account to the vendor. Google disclosed its Wallet mobile payment system in April this year. However, the service has been only available for customers on its Nexus S 4G on Sprint from the third week of September. For last several months, Google has been testing the competence of the payment method.

Google Wallet

Pricing and availability

Google Wallet is not a product or service to be sold. It is a service for all mobile customers, who wish to make their payments using their smartphones, instead of the conventional debit or credit cards. It has been, for the time being, available only on Google Nexus S 4G on Sprint. More Android smartphones with the NCF technology will be up with the service in near future, however.

What’s great?

Until now, you have been familiar only with the swiping of a debit or credit card to make instant and cashless payments at checkouts. Google Wallet is to change the arena; now you can just slide your smartphone to make a contactless payment. Even though, the service is only available in limited facilities as of now. What the fantastic thing with Google Wallet is that it extends a facility to combine multiple credit and debit cards. So far leading card providers Visa and Citi MasterCards have associated with the Google project. Many more are soon expected to be with the Google mobile payment system. Becoming a user of Google Wallet, your smartphone will gain a capability to merge all your instant payment options. As a result, instead of swiping your cards, you just have to glide your smartphone.

What’s not so great?

The thing is that at this point of time Google Wallet is just available on Nexus S 4G, also the first Android smartphone to feature NFC. There should be more NFC Android smartphones so as to support Google Wallet in coming months. And many more credit and debit cards providers should approve the service. As important is that stores would start accepting Google Wallet as a major payment option. For availing the facility to their customers, stores have to place Google Wallet readers at checkouts.

Things to watch out for

Google Wallet is just in its infancy stage. The facility is yet to get more attention in technology world. Financial service providers should also approve Google Wallet on way to get it popular among customers. So far, Visa, Citi MasterCards and many others have approved the service. Once many more service providers embrace the service, Google Wallet will become a great success. Of course, only few Google initiatives have failed in history; so it means Google Wallet is to mark great success in smartphone payment technologies. The very mobile payment technology will earn its impetus from Google Wallet.

Verdict

Needless to mention, Google Wallet is the Mountain View search giant’s brave attempt to gain ground in the emerging mobile commerce/payments market. Many firms from PayPal to the leading cellular service providers are competing to provide extended facilities to the customers to help make purchases, receive, and redeem coupons. Of course, massive success of many online payment and e-commerce firms might have given the thrust for Google to make a move to launch Google Wallet.

In fact, the feature gets realized after four-month long experimentation. After its announcement early this year, Google and MasterCards have been testing Google Wallet in New York and San Francisco. The service has finally born as its efficiency for secure and safe payments is established to the experts, says MasterCard’s Chief Emerging Payments Officer, Ed McLaughlin. It turns Google Wallet a feature that people can depend on in coming years to make their payments at checkouts right away.