Today Google announced it’s wallet, an electronic wallet located in your cell phone with tap-and-pay technology. With Google’s engineering prowess, it’s got to be a smooth customer experience – frictionless, as the saying goes.
Why so late? Doesn’t it seem like we should have been tapping and going at 7/11s and gas stations for a while now? The credit card companies have tried all sorts of experiments in Quick Service Restaurants and cabs for a while, but nothing seems to have caught on.
Google’s solution uses a near field communication chip to enable the magic, and requires companion hardware on the receiving end. Not every phone will have this technology for a while, but it does seem possible that someone would soon offer a standalone NFC wallet the size of a credit card. I’d sign up for that. Digital is infinitely scalable, so why not put your credit cards, frequent shopper cards, gym card, etc. on a digital wallet? At least it would leave you with a much smaller wallet with just your bills and drivers license, even if you were carrying an extra item.
It will be interesting to see whether this wakes up the bank associations like MasterCard…and American Express. Google does not know who they are dealing with. Those companies are fierce competitors and payment methods are their expertise. I worked on the transition from paper to paperless for gift cards and other instruments in the 1990s, and while these companies my not be first, they are fast followers and tenacious.
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It struck me yesterday that this NFC technology could be used at point of sale someone to a website for a special offer, just as a QR Code can be used. Perhaps QR codes will be superseded by this type of technology in the future.