Growing momentum
Google's apparent strategy of controlled leaks shortly before an announcement continued late yesterday with the revelation first from Bloomberg, then from the WSJ, that it will be unveiling a mobile payment service at an event tomorrow.
Assuming this does happen, it will be the culmination of the promises made with the release of Android 2.3 - Gingerbread - towards the end of last year. A big new feature of Gingerbread was support for NFC, which is a form of short range wireless communication ideally suited to allowing the phone to communicate instantly with its surroundings - especially via NFC touch points.
The roll-out of NFC technology in handsets and on the high street is a crucial phase in the evolution of the ‘mobile wallet', in which your phone performs the functions of the traditional wallet by replacing cash, credits cards, ID, etc. This sort of technology has been spoken about for some time, but it needed a catalyst. It seems Gingerbread was just that.
The Bloomberg report says specially equipped phones - such as the Gingerbread exemplar Nexus S - will be able to pay for goods and redeem coupons with their handsets. The WSJ says more or less the same, noting the platform will only function in New York and San Francisco locations initially.
This news comes on the back of a flood of mobile wallet announcements. The financial services companies seem to be stepping up their efforts, while start-ups such as Square are predicting the demise of the traditional cash register too. This technology is still as an early stage, however, as indicated by the limited initial scope of the reported Google launch.
